Rawn James - The Double V: How Wars, Protest, and Harry Truman Desegregated Americas Military

U.S. Army Eighth Illinois Volunteer Regiment, ca. 1899. (Library of Congress)

Integrated crew of the Civil Warera vessel USS Miami. (U.S. Navy)

The lead troops of the famous Ninth Cavalry pass in review at Camp Funston in May 1941. (U.S. Army)

Admiral Chester Nimitz pins the Navy Cross on Stewards Mate First Class Doris Miller, Pearl Harbor, May 27, 1942. (U.S. Navy)

An African American recruit unit at Naval Training School, Great Lakes, Illinois, August 1943. (U.S. Navy)

Private First Class Victor Tampone, a military police officer, in Columbus, Georgia, in 1942. (U.S. Army)

The first African American Navy WAVES officers, Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Harriet Ida Pikens and Ensign Frances Wills. (U.S. Navy)

Legendary African American drill instructor Sergeant Gilbert Hashmark Johnson, USMC, at Montford Point. (USMC)

Corporal Cornelius R. James, Sr., the authors grandfather, a military police officer during World War II. (James family)

Fighter pilots of an Army Air Force squadron credited with shooting down eight German aircraft discuss the days exploits on base, February 1944. (U.S. Army)

Officers of the Ninety-second Infantry DivisionCompany F, 370th Combat Team, reviewing maps and orders in Italy. (U.S. Army)

Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., the first African American flag officer, supervising Signal Corps soldiers in France, August 1944. (U.S. Army)

President Harry S. Truman. (Library of Congress)

The Golden Thirteen, the first African American naval officers, March 1944. From bottom row, left to right: Ensign James E. Hair, Ensign Samuel E. Barnes, Ensign George C. Cooper, Ensign William Sylvester White, Ensign Dennis D. Nelson; middle row, left to right: Ensign Graham E. Martin, Warrant Officer Charles B. Lear, Ensign Phillip G. Barnes, Ensign Reginald E. Goodwin; top row, left to right: Ensign John W. Reagan, Ensign Jesse W. Arbor, Ensign Dalton L. Baugh, Ensign Frank E. Sublett. (U.S. Navy)

Root and Branch: Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and the Struggle to End Segregation

Copyright 2013 by Rawn James, Jr.

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

James, Rawn.
The double v : how wars, protest, and Harry Truman desegregated Americas military / Rawn James, Jr.1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. United StatesArmed ForcesAfrican AmericansHistory20th century. 2. SegregationLaw and legislationUnited StatesHistory20th century. 3. African American soldiersHistory20th century. 4. African AmericansSegregationHistory20th century. 5. World War, 19141918Participation, African American. 6. World War, 19391945Participation, African American. 7. Truman, Harry S., 18841972Political and social views. 8. United States. Presidents Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services.
I. Title.
UB418.A47J36 2013
355.0089'96073dc23
2012030030

First U.S. Edition 2013
This electronic edition published in January 2013

eISBN: 978-1-60819-617-3

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The Double V is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Cornelius James, Sr., who served in a segregated U.S. Army during World War II in part so that his sons, Colonel Cornelius James, Jr., M.D. (U.S. Army, Ret.), Major Ralph James, Sr. (U.S. Army, Ret.), and Commander Rawn James, Sr. (U.S. Navy, Ret.), might serve in a better military and live in a fairer nation.

By September 28, 1918, it was plausible that a company of German soldiers, hunkered down in northeastern France and knowing that they would soon be attacked, would send word to the advancing Allied forces that they had suffered enough. One could imagine that the demoralized Germans would rather surrender than offer futile resistance. In the previous few days, the Allied troops had advanced far into Champagne, bringing with them enough artillery, ammunition, tanks, and provisions to inflict extraordinary damage.

The men of the 371st Infantry of the U.S. Ninety-third Division stood poised to take Hill 188 when a German noncommissioned officer approached their camp in surrender. He explained that he led thirty-five men who did not wish to risk their lives any further in pursuit of a lost cause. The Americans took the German soldier into custody. They began to trudge toward the hill.

German infantrymen began rising from their muddy trenches and pulling themselves onto the ramparts, where they raised their arms in surrender. The Americans held their fire.