On-post officers' clubs were particular targets of black protests against segregation. An Army regulation issued in December 1940, Army Regulation 210-10, stated that

no officers clubs, messes, or similar organization of officers will be permitted by the post commander to occupy any part of any public building ... unless such club, mess or other organization extends to all officers on the post the right to full membership.1

    Black officers challenged segregation at Camp Stewart, Georgia, for example, by requesting admission to the officers' club and being refused. Other officers would gain admission to local officers' club, sit down at table, and wait to be told to leave.2

    Black pilots were involved in some of the most disciplined and organized protests undertaken during the war. Selfridge Field near Detroit was a training base for two units of the 332nd Fighter Group, the 477th and the 553rd, and Selfridge Field was segregated. Some of the black airmen at Selfridge who had been trained at Tuskegee attempted to desegregate the officers' club, post theater, mess hall, post exchange, and other facilities. At the post theater, for example, where blacks and whites were separated by a white line down the middle of the theater, black airmen would wait until the theater had darkened and then jump to seats on the "white" side and remain there for the rest of the movie.3

    In 1943, the general commanding the unit had declared that the officers' club at Selfridge was for whites only and that black airmen would have to wait for a second club to be built; black officers responded by entering the existing club and were arrested. Other black officers applied to the white officers' club and were denied membership. In early 1944, officers planned a new approach for desegregating the officers' club: sending small groups, to prevent any accusation that they were encouraging a mutiny, to attempt to desegregate the club. They were turned away and threatened with court-martial. Over the course of the next five days, small groups attempted to integrate the officers' club. The post commander then closed the club. Within weeks, the black officers had a small measure of victory: the Army inspector general sent a team to investigate conditions on the base and both the colonel and lieutenant colonel commanding the group were relieved.4

    By this time, race relations at Selfridge were so bad that the Army Air Forces decided to move 477th and 553rd to other locations. The military's primary concerns were an ongoing dispute over the use of the officers' club and concern that the Selfridge troops would be influenced by the ongoing racial disturbances by civilians in Detroit.5

James Warren at Godman Field
Source: James Warren

    The 553rd was transferred from Selfridge to Walterboro, South Carolina, in May of 1944. At Walterboro, the black officers and airmen were disappointed to find that the base commander intended to impose strict segregation. The men were particularly upset to find that the white German prisoners of war (POWs) had equal access to all "white" facilities, while the blacks were denied access to the post exchange cafeteria and other facilities. Some airman attempted to desegregate the post theater with the same tactics that had worked to some extent at Selfridge, but this time the men involved were ordered to leave the movie theater. At the same time, officers from the 553rd were attempting to desegregate the officers' club at Walterboro. When their efforts were rebuffed, the officers organized a boycott of the movie theater and started writing letters to family, congressmen, and the press.6

    Some pilots responded to segregation at Walterboro by flying close to the local town's water tower, a "buzzing" that caused severe vibrations in the neighborhood. One of the pilots, Charles Dryden, later led the group in buzzing the control tower at Walterboro Field. Dryden and others were court-martialed for their efforts. Even while Dryden was waiting for his court-martial to convene, he openly protested a public statement by the post commander that the segregation policies would not be changed. Dryden was ultimately found guilty but was not dismissed from the Army Air Forces, a fate he considered fortunate.7

    While the 553rd went to Walterboro, the 477th was transferred from Selfridge to Godman Field, Kentucky, in May of 1944. At Godman, blacks had access to all the facilities at the field, only because whites used the clubs and recreational facilities at nearby Fort Knox. While at Godman, enlisted men from the 477th attempted to desegregate the Fort Knox movie theater.8

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1 Gropman, The Air Force Integrates, 19. Full Cites

2 Dalfiume, Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces, 68. Full Cites

3 Buckley, American Patriots, 291-292; Scott and Womack, Double V, 195. Full Cites

4 Gropman, The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964, 18; Osur, Separate and Unequal, 32; Scott and Womack, Double V, 200; Dryden, A-Train, 171; Holway, Red Tails, Black Wings, 170. Full Cites

5 Osur, Separate and Unequal, 32, 52. Full Cites

6 Sandler, Segregated Skies, 123; Dryden, A-Train, 176-77; Scott and Womack, Double V, 217; Osur, Blacks in the Army Air Forces During World War II, 60-61. Full Cites

7 Scott and Womack, Double V, 217; Dryden, A-Train, 183. Full Cites

8 Osur, Separate and Unequal, 51, 53. Full Cites

Tracy Fisher, Ph.D. Student, American History, George Mason University, Prepared for HIST697, Dr. Petrik, Spring 2010