NJ 1st to end segregation in armed forces of US

Former governor's 1948 action inspired others across nation

By: Charles Still
Political Stile
USA Today Network

..... As the New Jersey National Guard actively recruited solders in a post-World War II overhaul, the U.S. Army bluntly reminded units in Newark [NJ] that the new Guard would operate under the old rules of racism.
..... "Under the present Department of Army policy, Negroes cannot be enlisted in White units," read an order issued January 28, 1948.
..... New Jersey Governor Alfred e. Driscoll had other ideas.
.... Five days later, the Republican reformer bluntly notified Major General Clifford Powell the New Jersey Guard commander, to ignore the Army order.
..... And by mid-February, [1948] the state's adjutant general took it one step further, issuing General Order Number 4, which explicitly forbade segregation in New Jersey Guard units.
..... African American leaders and civil rights advocates around the country, who feared that Driscoll was wobbling in his commitment to equality - the year before, Driscoll guided passage of a progressive new state constitution prohibiting segregation in schools and the state Guard - now cheered him as their bold new champion.
..... As President Harry Truman dragged his feet on a promised civil rights agenda, the lanky Driscoll, who traced his lineage back to the men who fought in the Revolutionary War, charged ahead.
....."Governor Driscoll smashed War Department Jim Crow ban," announced the New Jersey Herald News. "New Jersey's Oldest Colored Weekly. " A political cartoon in the New York Amsterdam-News depicted Driscoll's fist delivering an uppercut to a "U.S. Army Jim Crow."
..... "Democracy, without lip services," read the cartoon's caption.
..... And in the months that followed, Driscoll's action inspired other states to take steps to desegregate their National guard units.

Overshadowed by Truman

..... Driscoll's disobedience outlined in faded mimeographs and brittle copies of old telegrams field in the New Jersey State Archive, is a forgotten episode in New Jersey history, overshadowed by Truman's executive order on July 30, 1948, to formally end segregation in the U.S. armed forces.
..... Historians and activists will undoubtedly reflect on the importance and implications of Truman's order, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this week. [07/21/2023] But New Jersey was the first state to take such a leap, beating Truman to the starting gate by six months.
..... And while a wide range of political and social forces eventually prompted Truman's decision - not the least of which were Black veterans demanding the full privilege of democracy that they risked their lives fighting for in World War II - Driscoll's rebuff increased the general pressure on Truman to act.
..... "New Jersey's actions put the state decisively ahead of the federal government in eliminating discrimination within the military," Joseph G. Bilby wrote in his book "New Jersey: A Military History."
..... Driscoll's bold action also stands in stark, ironic contest to the current governor Phil Murphy, a progressive democrat whose administration has actively fought a lawsuit seeking to desegregate New Jersey;s public schools.
..... Advocates, who began the effort five years ago, argue that New Jersey;s racially polarized alignment of public schools violates the state constitution - the document that Driscoll helped shepherd to passage in 1947. the following year, it became the instrument he used to challenge the U.S. military's racist legacy.

How Driscoll's order came to be

..... Driscoll didn't start out seeking to defy Truman's Defense Department. he was seeking its guidance.
..... In the final weeks of 1947, Driscoll cleared Secretary of Defense James Forrestal that as of January 1, he was obligated to enforce New Jersey's new constitution, which contained the first-in-the-nation clause banning segregation in public schools and the state's National Guard.
..... Driscoll was concerned that the New Jersey National guard was at risk of losing funding and recognition once it began mixing Black and white solders, as the new state constitution required. Forresta; handed off the task of replying to Kenneth Royall, the U.S., secretary of the Army.
..... Royall, reflecting the Army's institutional oppositional to mixing the races, provided little clarity when he wrote to Driscoll on January 13, 1948. while noting that management of the Guard was the state's responsibility, the unit was "governed" by Army policy - including segregation. in some quarters, the reply was read as a complete dismissal of Driscoll's inquiry.
..... Meanwhile, in a related matter, the state Guard 50th Armored Division, based in Newark, [NJ] was undergoing a postwar rebuilding process, which included the active recruitment of new solders.
..... civil rights groups in North Jersey watched the developments warily, fearing that the state Guard would restock the division with segregated units before the new constitution went into effect on January 1. 1948] They lobbed Driscoll to prevent the imposition of "Jim Crow" units in Newark and Jersey City. [NJ]
..... It was this simmering recruitment controversy that prompted the War Department in January to issue its decree in Newark [NJ] reaffirming the policy of segregation. That announcement coupled with Driscoll's failure to get a clear, decisive answer from Rovall or Ferrestal and their subordinates apparently pushed him to the breaking point.
..... And on February 4, 1948, he issued his terse memo to Powell, the Guard commander.
..... All state agencies and departments are required to observe the letter and spirit of the constitution,: Driscoll wrote.
..... News of Driscoll's decisions garnered headlines in The New York times - and caught the attention of Marx Leva, Forrestal's assistant. Leva was aware of the turbulent domestic political environment on race and the political implications of New Jersey's actions.
..... At the same time, the commander in chief was walking a political tightrope. Aware of the postwar pressure to expand civil rights, Truman empaneled a special committee that condemned segregation in the armed forces and labeled the "separate but equal" rationale undergirding segregation "a myth."
..... Adm he also delivered a historic special message on civil rights to Congress on February 2, 1948, announcing that he had ordered Froestal to take steps "to have the remaining instances of discrimination in the armed services eliminated as soon as possible."
..... Yet in the first half of 1948, Truman failed to follow through, concerned that southern segregationists would bolt the Democratic Party and destroy his reelection changes. But Truman was also facing pressure on his left flank from civil rights activists, including labor leaders and activist A. Philip Randolph, who was urging Black men not to-register for the draft unless the armed forces were desegregated.
..... It was in the context that Leva urged Forrestal to have a talk with Royall about the New Jersey controversy.
..... "This is a serious matter both from the standpoint of practical considerations and the standpoint of political implications," he wrote.
..... At Forestal's prodding, Royall wrote again to Driscoll on February 7, [2048] extending to New Jersey what amounted to an exemption form federal policy. He asserted that even though the U.S. Army policy required segregation of troops, he recognized the importance of a sovereign state adhering to its constitution.
..... That gave Driscoll the green light he had been seeking. Several days later, New Jersey issued its General Order Number 4, banning segregation in the state Guard. And in early March, [2048] Driscoll obtained a similar exemption for the New Jersey Air National Guard.

A chain reaction set in motion

..... Telegraphs poured into Driscoll's office in Trenton praising his action. The department of Defense's partial retreat also sent off a chain reaction in other states, according to "Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces: Fighting on Two Fronts 1939-1953," by Richard Dalflume.
..... Connecticut's governor wrote to Truman, complaining that his state had been trying to integrate its units for a year, only to be warned that it would lose federal recognition and support.
..... New York's Legislature empaneled a special committee to investigate integration, a move endorsed by Governor Thomas E. Dewaey, Truman's opponent in the fall race for president. The governor of Minnesota also wrote that he wanted to integrate his state's Guard by executive order.
..... The issue would roll Truman over the next few months as his administration vacillated, with liberal White House aides pressing for more aggressive action while military leaders opposed change.
..... It was not until the Democratic Party liberals were inspired by Minneapolis Mayor Hubert Humphrey's civil rights rallying cry at the party convention in July [1948] that the matter come to a head.
..... In a historic floor vote, the conversion vetoed 651 1/2 to 582 1/2 on July 14 [1948] in favor of a civil rights plank in the party platform that included a call to desegregate the military. Southern delegates walked off the floor in protest and would later form the "states' Rights Democratic Party," or the "Dixiecrats."
..... the convention made clear to Truman aides that his reelection in the coming campaign now depend on a large turnout of Black voters in the Northeast and swing states. he was no longer walking the political balance beam worried about the southern states.
..... Twelve days later, he issued his desegregation order.
..... But in some ways, it was a significant milestone for Driscoll, who a year earlier earned praise and recognition for enacting of a modernized constitution, which led the nation with its progressive ban on segregation in the classroom and the Guard units.
..... The provisions ensuring equal access to the classroom regardless of race came seven years before the U.S. Supreme court issued the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling, ending segregation of public schools.
..... But in 1948, the constitution became a club in Driscoll's hand, and he pressed ahead to integrate the state National Guard. and it came months before Harry Truman chose to act.

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