Richard E. Nugent - Racial Integration of The Air Force

Racial Integration of The Air Force

In April 1948, while Director of Civilian Personnel, Nugent was tasked by his superior, DCS for Personnel Lt. Gen. Idwal H. Edwards, to chair a study group to re-examine the racial policies of the Air Force. At that time, black Americans were 7% of Air Force enlisted personnel and only .06% of Air Force officers, in completely segregated units, and the new Air Force was under pressure from civil rights organizations to lead the way to integration. Nugent, Evans and Lt. Col. Jack F. Marr were instrumental in creating the racial integration plan for the USAF, announced publicly in June 1948, antedating President Harry S Truman's Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948 to integrate the armed forces. The Air Force's plan was submitted to Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington in January 1949, and implementation began May 11.

Although Edwards, Nugent, and Marr had all recommended full integration, reasoning that it was not only socially just but that segregation was inefficient and could never be made efficient, the Air Force adopted an incremental integration plan modeled on that of the U.S. Navy, which already had an official racial equality policy formulated by Navy Secretary James Forrestal during World War II. The Navy's racial problem stemmed from its limited compliance with its own policy, caused by diverting 62% of its blacks into the Steward's Branch, but where black sailors served in the fleet, complete integration within units, including living quarters, had already taken place. The numbers, however, were very small. Even so, Edwards and the civilian leadership of the Air Force announced that Air Force policy unequivocally endorsed Truman's order and demanded "ungrudging compliance" with it. Edwards made clear to local commanders that they would be held personally and officially responsible for the smooth implementation of the Air Force plan.

As a result, what was perceived as a limited plan went swiftly forward towards full integration. The effectiveness of the change is noted by the reports of the black-owned Pittsburgh Courier, which was wholly skeptical of the Air Force's sincerity in a May 21 story, yet just five months later prematurely announced the end of segregation in the service in bold headlines. By the end of the first year of implementation, in May 1950, only 24 of the original 106 black units remained, with the definition of a "Negro unit" being one with more than 50% black representation. Integration of quarters and other facilities in integrated units was almost immediate and total. At the end of 1950 only nine black units (all service units) remained and 95% of black airmen served in integrated units.

By June 1952, members of the last black unit, a 98-man service unit with 25 whites, had been distributed throughout the Air Force, while the Navy had made only a "token" transition that would continue for another ten years. Compliance by the Army had hardly begun because of strong internal resistance.