The Negro in the Navy

Publisher Marketing: There have been Negroes in the United States Navy since the early years of the Republic, but their numbers have always been small. Camp Robert Smalls, the first Negro recruit camp at the Great Lakes training station in World War II, was named for a Negro who rendered distinguished service to the Federal Navy in the Civil War. Older Navy men today recall the service of Negroes aboard the larger combatant vessels from the turn of the century through the First World War They served not only in the messman branch, but also held various skilled ratings as artificers. There is some confusion in the evidence as to whether in this period Negroes were enlisted for general service as well as for the messman branch, or only for the latter. Testimony of men who knew the Navy through those years is at variance; some enlistment records have been seen which indicate direct enlistment for general service, but these may always have been departures from a general rule. In any case, when the size of the Navy was curtailed in consequence of the disarmament movement following World War I, enlistment of Negroes seems to have been discontinued by BuNav. Recruiting of Negroes as messmen may have been kept open formally, but at least in practice only Filipinos were recruited for this branch from about 1919-1922 until December, 1932. About December 1932, active recruiting of Negroes for the messman branch began and this was the only branch in which Negroes could enlist until recruiting for general service was opened to them as of June 1, 1942. When World War II opened there were on active duty in the Navy, in other than the messman branch, six rated Negroes of the regular Navy, 23 rated men who had returned from retirement to service in the regular Navy and 14 rated men of the Fleet Reserve.