Existing comment:
Training of Black Officers:
With the Negro soldier making up 9 percent of the Army, Negro leaders expected the number of Negro officers be a proportionate number. Likewise, it was expected that the Negro officers would eventually make up the commanders and staffs of the Negro battalions. A major obstacle to this approach was that of the 1,997 officer candidates, only 17 were Negroes (1 at the Cavalry School). The slow rate at which Negro officers were being developed caused Edgar Brown, a prominent Negro legislative lobbyist, to call for a separate officer candidate school for Negroes. When radio stations broadcasted that responsible Negro leaders were opposed to the President's plan of training Negro and white officers together, the NAACP replied -- "We respectfully submit that no leader considered responsible by intelligent Negro or white Americans would make such a request." The Army, concluded [sic] it was not cost effective to build a separate school, continued training the two races together. |