United States Army In World War II: Special Studies: The Employment Of Negro Troops (1966) By Ulysses Lee
 
This volume examines in detail the Army's prewar planning for the use of black soldiers that was based on its perceptions of segregated troops in World War I. But its plans for the carefully restricted use of a limited number of black soldiers were radically transformed by the great influx of black draftees produced by the nondiscrimination clause of the Selective Service Act of 1940 and by pressures brought to bear on an administration generally disposed to accommodate the growing power of the black voter. Much of this pressure was focused on the War Department through the efforts of the Special Aide to the Secretary of War on Negro Affairs, Judge William H. Hastie. Appropriately in a volume whose subject transcends the usual considerations of military manpower, Hastie's demands are thoroughly evaluated and contrasted with those of his successors. The volume also analyzes in detail the recruitment of blacks, many unskilled and undereducated, and the challenge of transforming them into soldiers for an Army that for the most part resisted their presence, questioned their competence, and clearly intended to use almost all of them as unskilled laborers and service troops It also examines the Army's continuing problem in developing suitable leaders for segregated units. The integration of black infantry platoons in the divisions along the European battlefront was important as a sign of future change and merits special attention in this volume. Their competence, along with that of thousands of other black soldiers, portended the racial transformation of the Army into a fully integrated force just six years later
 
Hard Cover
740 Pages 
In Good Condition