The Golden Thirteen | |
---|---|
Active | 1944 – |
Country | United States of America |
Branch | Navy |
The Golden Thirteen were the thirteen African American enlisted men who became the first African American commissioned and warrant officers in the United States Navy.
Throughout the history of the United States until the end of World War I, the Navy had enlisted African Americans for general service, but they were barred from joining from 1919 to 1932. From 1893 onwards, African Americans could only join the Navy’s Messman’s and Steward’s branches, which not only segregated African Americans from the rest of the Navy community, but also precluded them from becoming commissioned officers. [2]
In June 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the executive order (8802) prohibiting ethnic and racial discrimination by federal agencies or contractors involved in the defense industry. [3]
In April 1942, thanks to protests and pressure from civil rights leaders and the black press, the Navy allowed black men into the general service ratings for the first time. [4]
Responding to pressure from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Adlai Stevenson, in January 1944, the Navy began an officer training course for 16 African-American enlisted men at Camp Robert Smalls, Recruit Training Center Great Lakes (now known as Great Lakes Naval Training Station), in Illinois.
To ensure their failure, [5] the normal training period of 16 weeks was reduced to 8 weeks for the black cadets. When they realized that someone in the Navy wanted them to wash out, the cadets covered up the windows of their barracks and studied all night. When they were tested, the entire group passed with high marks. Disbelief in the chain of command that an all-black cadet class could achieve higher scores than an all-white one meant that the black sailors had to suffer the indignity of retaking their tests. Again, all 16 passed; the class average at graduation was 3.89. [6]
Although all sixteen members of the class passed the course, only twelve were commissioned in March 1944: Jesse Walter Arbor (1914–2000), Phillip George Barnes (1909-1949), Samuel Edward Barnes (1915-1997), Dalton Louis Baugh Sr. (1912-1985), George Clinton Cooper (1916-2002), Reginald Ernest Goodwin (1907-1974), James Edward Hair (1915–1992), Graham Edward Martin (1919-2006), Dennis Denmark Nelson (1907-1979), John Walter Reagan (1920–1994), Frank Ellis Sublett (1920-2006), and William S. White (1914-2004) were commissioned as Ensigns; Charles Byrd Lear (1916–1946) was appointed as a Warrant Officer. Augustus Alves, J.B. Pinkney, and Lewis "Mummy" Williams also passed the exam but were not given commissions. The reason why only 13 gained rank, despite all the men being successful in training was never explained, but it is noted that this rate brought the pass-rate down to the level of the average class of white candidates. [1] [6] [7]
Because Navy policy barred blacks from being assigned to combat ships, the first class of black officers were assigned to command shore logistics units, small tug and tender ships, and training African American enlisted. [8]
President Harry S. Truman officially desegregated the U.S. military in 1948. At the time of the Golden Thirteen's commissioning, there were approximately 100,000 African-American men serving in the United States Navy's enlisted ranks.
Of the 13, most separated just after the war as LTJG. Three, Baugh, Nelson, and Reagan, remained until retiring as LCDR. Samuel Barnes became the athletic director at Howard University and served on the executive committee of the NCAA, the first African-American to do so. Dalton Baugh served as an instructor of the Navy Engineering School and later at MIT. Dennis Nelson served as a Public Affair Officer and submitted a report entitled "The Integration of the Negro into the U.S. Navy", which was subsequently published as a book in 1951. William White would go on to serve as the presiding judge of the Cook County Juvenile Court and justice of the Illinois Appellate Court. [7] [9]
Frank E. Sublett, the last living member of the group, died in 2006. [1] [10]
In 1987, the U.S. Navy reunited the seven living members to dedicate a building in their honor at Great Lakes Naval Recruit Training Command, Illinois. Today, Building 1405 at RTC Great Lakes, where recruits first arrive for basic training, is named "The Golden Thirteen" in honor of them.
In 2006, ground was broken on a World War II memorial in North Chicago, Illinois to honor the Golden Thirteen and Doris Miller. Today, the Golden 13 Memorial is located at Veterans Memorial Park, Sheridan Boulevard & 18th Street. [11]
A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada, Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Kenya.
Officer Cadet is a rank held by military cadets during their training to become commissioned officers. In the United Kingdom, the rank is also used by members of University Royal Naval Units, University Officer Training Corps and University Air Squadron; however, these are not trainee officers with many not choosing a career in the armed forces.
Samuel Lee Gravely Jr. was a United States Navy officer. He was the first African American in the U.S. Navy to serve aboard a fighting ship as an officer, the first to command a Navy ship, the first fleet commander, and the first to become a flag officer, retiring as a vice admiral.
Sub-lieutenant is usually a junior officer rank, used in armies, navies and air forces.
The United States Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve), better known as the WAVES (for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), was the women's branch of the United States Naval Reserve during World War II. It was established on July 21, 1942, by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on July 30. This authorized the U.S. Navy to accept women into the Naval Reserve as commissioned officers and at the enlisted level, effective for the duration of the war plus six months. The purpose of the law was to release officers and men for sea duty and replace them with women in shore establishments. Mildred H. McAfee, on leave as president of Wellesley College, became the first director of the WAVES. She was commissioned a lieutenant commander on August 3, 1942, and later promoted to commander and then to captain.
Naval Station Great Lakes is the home of the United States Navy's only current boot camp, located near North Chicago, in Lake County, Illinois. Important tenant commands include the Recruit Training Command, Training Support Center and Navy Recruiting District Chicago. Naval Station Great Lakes is the largest military installation in Illinois and the largest training station in the Navy. The base has 1,153 buildings situated on 1,628 acres (6.59 km2) and has 69 mi (111 km) of roadway to provide access to the base's facilities. Within the naval service, it has several different nicknames, including "The Quarterdeck of the Navy", or the more derogatory "Great Mistakes". It is also referred to as "second boot camp" while at Training Support Command.
The Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) program is a college-based, commissioned officer training program of the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps.
United States Coast Guard (USCG) Women's Reserve, also known as the SPARS, was the women's branch of the United States Coast Guard Reserve. It was established by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 23 November 1942. This law authorized the acceptance of women into the reserve as commissioned officers and at the enlisted level for the duration of World War II plus six months. Its purpose was to release officers and men for sea duty and to replace them with women at shore stations. Dorothy C. Stratton was appointed director of the SPARS with the rank of lieutenant commander and later promoted to captain.
Jesse LeRoy Brown was a United States Navy officer. He was the first African-American aviator to complete the United States Navy's basic flight training program, the first African-American naval officer killed in the Korean War, and a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross.
George John Dufek was an American naval officer, naval aviator, and polar expert. He served in World War II and the Korean War and in the 1940s and 1950s spent much of his career in the Antarctic, first with Admiral Byrd and later as supervisor of U.S. programs in the South Polar regions. Rear Admiral Dufek was the director of the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia after his retirement from the Navy in 1959.
Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, is a unit within the United States Navy primarily responsible for conducting the initial orientation and indoctrination of incoming recruits, also known as boot camp and recruit training, or RTC. It is part of Naval Service Training Command. It is a tenant command of Naval Station Great Lakes in the city of North Chicago, Illinois, in Lake County, north of Chicago.
A captain's clerk was a rating, now obsolete, in the Royal Navy and the United States Navy for a person employed by the captain to keep his records, correspondence, and accounts. The regulations of the Royal Navy demanded that a purser serve at least one year as a captain's clerk, so the latter was often a young man working his way to a purser's warrant. He had high status, with an office on the quarterdeck or upper deck on most ships. He was paid at the same rate as a midshipman in 1800, but by 1815 he had almost the same monthly pay as a standing warrant officer. On large ships, he had his own cabin in the gunroom, but on smaller vessels he lived with the midshipmen on the orlop deck.
The US Navy had four programs for the training of naval aviators.
Camp Robert Smalls was a United States Naval training facility, created pursuant to an order signed April 21, 1942 by Frank Knox, then Secretary of the Navy, for the purpose of training African-American seamen at a time when the USN was still segregated by race.
An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service.
A series of policies were formerly issued by the U.S. military which entailed the separation of white and non-white American soldiers, prohibitions on the recruitment of people of color and restrictions of ethnic minorities to supporting roles. Since the American Revolutionary War, each branch of the United States Armed Forces implemented differing policies surrounding racial segregation. Racial segregation in the U.S. military was officially prohibited by Harry S. Truman's Executive Order 9981 in 1948, though unofficial forms of racial segregation continued to be practiced until after the Korean War.
The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps is a federal program sponsored by the United States Armed Forces in high schools and also in some middle schools across the United States and at US military bases across the world. The program was originally created as part of the National Defense Act of 1916 and later expanded under the 1964 ROTC Vitalization Act.
Naval Service Training Command (NSTC) is a one-star Echelon III command of the United States Navy that is responsible to the Chief of Naval Education and Training for the indoctrination and training of all new accessions into the Naval Service, with the exception of Midshipmen who access through the United States Naval Academy. This includes all new recruits through Recruit Training Command, the Navy's only enlisted recruit training location and all Officer "Candidates" who are seeking a commission through the Officer Training Command at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island. Also under its purview is the operation of the various Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) units in universities across the country.
William Sylvester White, was a prosecutor, a member of the first cohort of African-Americans commissioned officers in the U.S. Navy, and the second African-American to serve as presiding judge for the Cook County Juvenile Court.