by Dan Goldberg
shore patrol, limits to, 106–7
Smalls, Robert, 98
Smathers, William, 75
Smith, Rogers M., 144
Snyder, Charles P., 54
Spalding, Ralph D., 93
Special Programs Unit, US Navy, 146–47
Spiers, Ronald, 183
Stephenson, David C., 84
stevedore work, 135, 202, 215
Stevenson, Adlai: argument for commissioning black officers, 148–50; friendship with Knox, 148–49; implementation of vision, 188; views on Brown v. Board of Education, 223
steward branch, US Navy. See messman branch, US Navy
Stickney, Fred R., 216
Stillwell, Paul, 226
Stimson, Henry, 28–30, 46
St. Juliens Creek, Virginia, race riot, 142
Sublett, Frank Ellis, Jr.: ambition to join the Army Air Force, 114; background, childhood, and education, 113; at Citizens’ Military Training Camp, 114; college and graduate studies, 113–14; death, 226; decision to enlist in the Navy, 114; departure from the Navy, 214; at Hampton Institute, 113–15, 121, 204; mechanical aptitude, 114; as officer at Eniwetok, 211–12; performance reports, 188; personality, 166–67; recruitment for officer training, 6; response to racism, 194; return to Hampton following commissioning, 193; at reunions of the Golden Thirteen, 220–21; reunion with Syl White at Eniwetok, 211; on rigor and demands of officer training, 171; sales and modeling career, 225
Sullivan, John L., 215
Sweeney, Martin, 71
Tank Corps, US, 28
Thomas, Curtis, 137–38
Thompson, James G., 62–63
369th Infantry Regiment: Harlem Hellfighters, 145; successes during World War I, 9
Time magazine, article about black trainees at Camp Robert Smalls, 102
Tobacco Port, Tennessee, Martin’s childhood in, 82–83
Trade School Singers, 118
Trester, Arthur, 86
Truant, USS, training vessel, 104
Tucker, Homer J., 59, 61
Turek, William, 176, 189, 213–14
Tuskegee, Alabama, training program for black pilots, 42, 45, 208
Twining, Robert Barber, 196–97
U-boats, 2
University of Indiana, Martin’s attendance, 87–88
The Use of Negro Manpower in War (Army War College), 9
V-1 training program, US Navy, exclusion of blacks, 80
V-12 Navy College Training Program, 127–28, 149–50
Vann, Robert Lee: Committee on Participation on Negroes in the National Defense Program, 25, 111; death, 39; desire for racial equality in the military, 14–15, 24; endorsement of Willkie, 27; influence, 14, 38; as publisher of the Pittsburgh Courier, 12–13; role in obtaining the black vote for FDR, 13–14
Van Ness, Donald O., 101–2, 141, 146 venereal disease, 101, 133
Virginia Peninsula Teachers Union, petition to allow black naval officers, 128
Walker, Addison, 71–72, 80
Walker, William, 136–37
Walsh, David, 75
War Department: discussion on low black morale, 49; efforts to curb criticisms from black press, 70; ignoring of racist incidents, 45–46. See also Knox, Frank; Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (FDR)
Warrick, Ronald, 15
Washington, North Carolina, Cooper’s early years in, 33–36
WAVES, integration of, 197–98
Weaver, D. A., 12
White, Carolyn and Marilyn, 184
White, George Vivian Bridgeforth, 184
White, sol, 137–38
White, Walter: antilynching efforts, 27–28; efforts to get FDR to intervene in race riots, 48, 141; and the Harlem riots, 145; meetings with black leaders about integrating the military, 27–29; pressure on E. Roosevelt to promote integration, 27; visit to the Pacific Theater, 198, 200–201
White, William Sylvester (Syl): advocacy on behalf of gay and female sailors, 226; as an assistant US attorney, 150–52; Collins’ praise for, 187; death, 226; delay in commissioning of, 182–83; effort to join the FBI, 153; enlistment in the Navy, 153; family, childhood, and education, 152; as Granger’s press officer/assistant, 211–12; personality, 167; post-boot camp assignment, 153–54; post-Navy career, 213, 225; promotion and transfer to Washington, 210; as prosecutor in the Newby sedition trial, 152; recruitment for officer training, 6; reluctance to talk about time in the Navy, 227; at reunions of the Golden Thirteen, 218; view of Goodwin as an Uncle Tom, 163; views on Armstrong, 181, 190; visit home after commissioning, 184; work with the black press, 187
white officers/sailors: efforts to undermine black officers, 173–74, 191, 194, 203–5; outranking by blacks, concerns about, 66, 74–75, 106, 125–27, 156, 186, 204; racism/condescension shown by, 69, 135, 154, 194
white supremacy: and the Jim Crow South, 120, 122, and the Ku Klux Klan, 83–86; propaganda use of by Axis, 140; after World War I, 10
Whiting, Kenneth, 53
Wilkins, Roy, 62, 145
Williams, Lewis “Mummy”: enlistment in the Navy, 153; failure to be commissioned, 182; at officers’ training school, 6; social work career, 151; work in the Great Lakes selection office, 133
Willkie, Wendell, 27, 39, 67, 72–73, 134–35
Wilson, Jean Ellen, 17–18
Winchell, Walter, 55
Wolverine, USS, training vessel, 104
World War I, black soldiers during, 9–10
Wright, Cleo, 123
Wright, Estes, 17–20
Xavier University, New Orleans, Hair’s graduation from, 92
YO-106 yard oiler, Martin as skipper aboard, 205
YP-131 patrol craft, Sublett and Martin aboard, 204
YTB-215 harbor tugboat, Reagan and Hair aboard, 206
1. Recently commissioned black officers: front row (left to right): Ensigns George Cooper, Graham Martin, Jesse Arbor, John Reagan, and Reginald Goodwin; back row (left to right): Dennis Nelson, Phillip Barnes, Sam Barnes, Dalton Baugh, James Hair, Frank Sublett, and Warrant Officer Charles Lear. William Sylvester White was commissioned but is not pictured in this photo. February 1944.
2. Front row (left to right): George Cooper, Graham Martin, Jesse Arbor, and John Reagan; back row (left to right): Reginald Goodwin, Dennis Nelson, Phillip Barnes, Sam Barnes, and Dalton Baugh.
Charles Lear
Phil Barnes
George Cooper
Graham Martin
Dennis Nelson
Jesse Arbor
Frank Sublett
James Hair
John Reagan
Reginald Goodwin
Dalton Baugh
Sam Barnes
Dorothy Donegan, pianist, and Camp Robert Smalls swing band.
Hazel Scott, pianist, performs at Great Lakes.
Marva Louis, wife of heavyweight champion Joe Louis, entertained some two thousand black men in April 1944 at the Naval Training Station, Great Lakes. She is shown here with Ensign Sam Barnes and Willie Smith, musician second class, a nationally known saxophone player.
Lester Granger inspecting facilities in San Diego, California, chats with Rofes Herring, S1c.; Walter Calvert, S2c.; and Nollie H. Million, civilian, as Lt. Roper (far left) stands by.
Chief Specialist R. W. Wallis, in khaki, demonstrates to black recruits the proper way to wear a Navy hat, September 9, 1942.
Lieut. Commander Edwin Hall Downes (second from left), officer in charge of the Navy’s training program at Hampton Institute, goes over with his staff the blueprints for new buildings. Left to right: Lieut. (jg) William W. Couzens, Downes, Lieut. Charles M. Dillon, and Ensign Herbert M. Stein.
Recruits balance themselves on the commando course at Camp Robert Smalls, September 9, 1942.
From right: Nathaniel O. Dyson, Richard Hubbard, and John W. Reagan, three electrician’s mates, listen as Chief Electrician’s Mate John E. Taylor explains the workings of the power system that they would be working with when serving aboard the USS Mason. Reagan would be diverted to officer c
andidate school shortly after this photo was taken.
BEACON PRESS
Boston, Massachusetts
www.beacon.org
Beacon Press books
are published under the auspices of
the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
© 2020 by Dan C. Goldberg
All rights reserved
Text design and composition by Kim Arney
All photographs are from the U.S. Navy, located in the National Archives Record Group 80-G.
ISBN 978-0-8070-2158-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-8070-2189-7 (ebook)
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is on file.
Library of Congress Cataloguing number 2019059058.
LC Record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059058
