Exhibit C

Reprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
15 (Winter 2001). ISSN 0882-228X
Copyright (c) 2001, Organization of American Historians

October 24, 1944

Dear Admiral Denfeld:

I have your letter dated September 22 in which you discuss the relative hazards involved in handling ammunition with particular reference to the situation at Mare Island, California, and state that in assigning enlisted personnel, the Department is not dealing with races but with members of the Naval service who are placed on the basis of military principles. I want to apologize for my delay in answering your letter but I have been away from the city on a series of engagements.

With respect to the statement in your letter to the effect that it is not the policy to assign Negroes exclusively to the job of unloading ammunition, I enclose a copy of a letter dated October 19 from our Special Counsel, Thurgood Marshall, to Secretary Forrestal in which he raises certain questions based upon his personal investigation of the situation.

The general tenor of your letter which may be summed up in your statement that the Navy is not "fighting a war on a race basis" amazes me.

It is notorious that for years the Navy recruited Negroes only for service in the messman branch. Only since December 5, 1942, when the Navy began recruiting through Selective Service, has this serious and unfair limitation on the use of Negro personnel been relaxed. But even then, according to a letter from Lieutenant Commander P. B. Brannen, Director of the Public Relations Division, on March 9, 1943, Negroes are accepted only for two other assignments: general service and construction battalions. Unless the Navy is prepared to say that Negroes, as a race, are not qualified to serve in the medical ordinance, aviation and the many other services of the Navy, it is difficult, if not impossible, to square your statements of policy with Naval practice.

Equally notorious has been the refusal of the Navy to grant commissions to Negroes solely on the basis of race. The fact that you have recently broken with the tradition by commissioning fifteen or twenty Negroes would not justify the self-righteous tone of your letter. Not only does the commissioning of this handful of men bear no reasonable proportion to the total number of commissioned officers, but it is merely an infinitesimal fraction of the total Negro personnel.

Without prejudging the current mutiny trial—on the West Coast—photographs released by the Navy itself clearly show the result of Naval policy. Here fifty (50) Negroes are on trial for an offense for which they can, under military law, receive the death penalty and yet the Board that sits in judgment of these men are necessarily all white because no Negroes are attached to the Judge Advocate's office.

The large number of letters and petitions from Negro sailors, their relatives and friends, that flood our offices asking relief from discriminatory assignments and mistreatment from white naval personnel belie your statements. There is a real need for a drastically revised Navy policy in regard to race which we hope will be instituted before the war ends.

Very truly yours,
WALTER WHITE (signed)

Secretary.

Mr. L. E. Denfeld
Rear Admiral, U. S. N.
Acting Chief of Naval Personnel
Navy Department
Washington 25, D. C.