The U.S. Army has been called the most colorblind organization in America, but it wasn't always so. During World War II, black soldiers were subjected to the same discrimination as their civilian counterparts, enduring both physical segregation and racist treatment at the hands of white officers and fellow enlisted men.

The U.S. Army has been called the most colorblind organization in America, but it wasn't always so. During World War II, black soldiers were subjected to the same discrimination as their civilian counterparts, enduring both physical segregation and racist treatment at the hands of white officers and fellow enlisted men.



The Deep South, of course, was particularly racist in its attitudes toward blacks, including black soldiers, as Corp. Rupert Trimmingham and several other black GIs discovered while traveling from Louisiana to Arizona in 1944. During a layover in a small town in Louisiana, Trimmingham and his fellow soldiers were told that the only place they could get something to eat was the town's railroad station — and even then they weren't allowed in the station's public restaurant. They had to walk behind the building to the kitchen's back door, where they would receive a meal.



From that kitchen area, Trimmingham could see into the station's restaurant; while he and his buddies were eating, two American military policemen walked into the restaurant accompanied by several German prisoners of war. To Trimmingham's horror, the German POWs not only were seated and served, but also through the course of the meal they were joking, smoking, swapping stories with their guards and having, as Trimmingham later put it, "quite a swell time."



Trimmingham was so angry he wrote a letter to Yank, the Army's weekly magazine. In addition to describing the scene above, Trimmingham wrote:



"Here is the question each Negro soldier is asking. What is the Negro soldier fighting for? On whose team are we playing? .... Are [the German POWs] not sworn enemies of our country? Are they not taught to hate and destroy all Democratic governments? Are we not American soldiers, sworn to fight and die if need be for this country? Then why are they treated better than we are "¦ why does the government allow such things to go on? Some of the boys are saying you will not print this letter. I'm saying that you will."



To its everlasting credit, Yank did publish the letter, this week April 28 in 1944. In response it received a deluge of letters, the vast majority expressing outrage at Trimmingham's treatment. As one writer said, to treat someone fighting against America better than someone fighting for America, simply because of skin color, violated all sense of decency and mocked patriotism.



Trimmingham's letter became quite famous in its time and in its own small way contributed to the movement to make the army as colorblind as possible — a movement that was made official, if not an actual fact, in July 1948 when President Truman signed an executive order ending discrimination in the armed services.



Bruce Kauffmann welcomes your questions and comments. Write to him at 302 Summers Drive, Alexandria, VA 22301; e-mail bruce@historylessons.net.