Discrimination in the Military Services - Thesis Proposal Example

Discrimination in the military during reconstruction Introduction: The reconstruction era in U.S. history refers to the period after the civil war, when the economy and social structures were rebuilt . Although this applied to the nation as whole, the major changes were made in the Southern United States from the period 1863 to 1877, through the reconstruction of the sates and the existing society in all of the states that formerly belonged to the Confederacy. The period commenced in effect after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. Negro soldiers had to struggle at the outset for their right to bear arms; however the discrimination against them continued even into the war and into measures that were instituted later to put into practices the objective of the Civil War and integrate them into the mainstream. As Frederick Douglass stated: "Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship." (www.archives.gov). The fact that these blacks had fought in the military and supported the noble cause of their nation by bearing arms should have itself counted a great deal towards ensuring that they were treated as equal citizens in American society. However, as the detailed account below shows, America during and after the Civil War was a racially segregated society, in which blacks had been demeaned for generations. The measures instituted to achieve equality were therefore not always successful, rather the discrimination and segregation which had already existed in society continued on even during the reconstruction period. While the objective of federal legislation and constitutional amendments were the achievement of equality, the actual practice lay in the hands of the local and state Governments, which perhaps serves to explain why the discrimination in the military and towards black soldiers continued on in the reconstruction period. Review of discrimination in the military: A notable example of military discrimination may be noted in the GI bill, which purportedly provided educational opportunities for black soldiers to advance themselves and improve their prospects. Humes (2006) gives the example of a young black American named Monte Posey, who had suffered a disappointment in his military career when his elite training as a fighter pilot came abruptly to an end after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, because military aviators had become superfluous. Posey had been offered two options, first, a position in the infantry which he was not anxious to pursue and second, an early discharge if he was able to produce a letter of acceptance from a college or university, which he did indeed want to pursue. While Posey was successful in securing admission to the University of Illinois at their new Chicago campus, he was still unable to secure funding from the Veterans Administration, in order to ensure that he was able to pay the fees for the college course and take it up. The reasons that were provided to him were simple, i.e., there were no jobs available for college educated blacks. This clearly demonstrates the element of discrimination that existed against the blacks. While the GI Bill claimed to be in favour of military personnel, in enabling them to receive the gratitude of the country for their military service through opportunities in education, the harsh reality was that such advanced educational opportunities existed only for the whites. The blacks who applied under this bill were shunted off into vocational trades, in much the same manner as the VA administrator who was in charge of Posey’s case tried to get him to do. Posey had grown up in a segregated army unit in a segregated country, exemplifying the aftermath of the discrimination of the civil war period which still carried over into the present. As Humes (2006) also points out, the military remained a vehicle of discrimination, both during the war and during the reconstruction period following the war. He cites the example of a young, black Army lieutenant who refused to give up his seat on a military bus to a white soldier and for purely this reason, had to face a court martial and a long prison sentence. Horton (1999) points out that “racial differentiation was the hallmark of American slavery.”(Horton, 1999:630). The major objective of the Civil War was the liberation of slaves and it was the army the provided a vehicle for many former slaves to fight on a basis of equality with their white counterparts from the northern Union states. An earlier federal law dated 1792 did not allow blacks to bear arms, hence at the outset this law was discriminatory. It was only on July 17, 1862 that emancipated slaves and allowed them to enlist in military regiments (www.archives.gov). The singular goal that drove the Negro slave who chose to enlist in the war was the achievement of his freedom; but the reality of the strong entrenchment of slavery into society is exemplified in a 1762 Pennsylvania law which stated that a “free black person could be sold into slavery for marrying a white person, while no punishment was provided for the white partner.” (Horton, 1999:630). While the reconstruction was aimed at bringing freedom and equality to Negros, in theory, it was not necessarily as easy to execute in practice. When the war was going on, black battalions were subjected to prejudice even in combat; they were not used as extensively as they could have been, rather they were relegated to menial, non combat jobs and less important roles in the battalions as compared to their white counterparts; such as for instance being relegated to jobs like cooks, guards and labourers.(www.archives.gov). Discrimination existed even in the North, as evidenced in the formation of black only battalions, which were commanded by white officers or non commissioned black officers, who were thud deprived of the privileges and stature which went with the position of commander of a battalion. Yet another example that has been cited by Humes (2006) is the inequality in the training provided to all black military battalions, and they were expected to perform to the standards of the other troops despite these deficiencies in training. The segregation that characterized slavery was also continued into the war, because Negros troops were expected to travel on different buses, or if travelling with the white troops, were expected to yield to white superiority in seating arrangements. While the GI Bill was indeed successful in bringing about changes in the lives of many black soldiers during the reconstruction period, it was not on par with those of the whites. In essence, although both the blacks and whites had fought with equal valour and courage and had achieved military distinctions, they did not have access to the same privileges and opportunities that the whites had, purely because of their race. One example may be noted in reduced pay. Blacks received less pay than their white counterparts and they also had access to fewer privileges as compared to the white soldiers. The Militia Act of 1862 held that soldiers who were Negros were to be paid a sum of $10.00 a month from which a clothing allowance of $3.50 was to be deducted, a very reduced rate as compared to the white soldiers who received a salary of $13 and no amount was deducted from this salary as clothing allowance. Hence, in essence, the pay for the blacks was roughly half the amount that was paid to white soldiers, which also led many black regiments to refuse to receive any pay at all until they were equally compensated (www.americancivilwar.com). Similarly, black soldiers also faced discrimination when they became prisoners of war, because they were treated far more harshly than white soldiers. Confederate troops punished black soldiers much more severely, to the extent that President Lincoln had to issue General Order 233, which allowed for harsh punitive measures against Confederate prisoners of war if undue harshness was meted out to black prisoners of war by the Confederates.(www.archives,gov) In terms of the GI bill which was passed to ensure that the soldiers who had fought in the civil war were able to pursue gainful educational and employment opportunities after the war, a similar discrimination was evident as demonstrated in the case of Posey, detailed above. As Humes (2006:94) has detailed, Ira Katznelson of the Columbia University undertook research into the execution of the GI Bill and the people who had benefitted from or were excluded from it. On the basis of his findings, he concluded that there was “no greater instrument for widening an already huge racial gap in postwar America than the GI bill.” As opposed to this however, other researchers have found that the GI bill was helpful in ensuring that many blacks were able to secure employment. But as Humes(2006) has concluded, the actual effects of the GI Bill are difficult to evaluate as a stand alone piece of legislation, because all of its benefits were handed out within a society that was already racial and had long established racial segregation practices, which had even continued down into the military. The case of Posey shows that the earlier discrimination which viewed blacks as inferior members of society who were not entitled to exist on par with the whites also filtered down into the GI Bill, because the blacks were shunted off into vocational trades while the whites were the only ones deemed entitled to more advanced education which would secure them more prestigious employment. The situation resulted largely because of the existing social environment at the time; it was still not socially acceptable for blacks to be getting educated to a level with whites or securing employment on par with them, because even if a Negro had successfully educated himself using the financial assistance available under the GI Bill, there were simply no opportunities available for such employment in the wirer society. As Humes(2006) further points out, the same discrimination also extended into other sectors such as housing, where the existing segregation practices and the unwillingness of the whites to eschew long established practices of segregation meant that Negros were automatically shunted off into segregated areas. A colour blind society would have meant that the provisions of the GI Bill would have benefited all members of the armed forces on an equal basis, but because of the existing realities in the social environment, the actual outcomes were discriminatory. Although the GI Bill purported to be a piece of legislation promulgating equality, the reality was that the actual practice of it was passed into the hands of the local authorities, who The major vehicles of the reconstruction were the constitutional amendments that were instituted, i.e., the addition of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. As Harrison (2001) points out, there is a procedure legal procedure that is spelt out under Article V to make any amendment to the Constitution a legal one that is properly ratified and adequately represents the will of all the constituent States. He questions the passage of the three amendments after the Civil war and whether they were lawfully promulgated. When the reconstruction was in progress, there was so much attendant turmoil that the question arising was whether the Article V process was truly being followed and whether the political organizations that resulted from the amendments were truly empowered to speak on behalf of the people they represented. One example of this is the statement in the Military reconstruction Act , which stated that ten states which had been excluded from representation in the Congress would be restored (pp 377). Although they were quickly accepted during the reconstruction phase, their validity still remains questionable. Conclusions: On the basis of the above, it may thus be noted that the objective of reconstruction was to follow through on the objectives of the Civil War, i.e., to achieve the emancipation and equality of blacks and to release them from the bonds of slavery that they had suffered from for so long. The military was the vehicle for many former slaves to attain their freedom, because it offered the promise of such a freedom through the aims that the war espoused. Three amendments to the Constitution, the 13th, 14th and 15th were executed to try to attain this objective. However, as the literature review above has shown, the amendments were passed in a hurry, but the validity of the legal procedures in passing of these amendments has also been questioned. Military reconstruction sought to achieve the integration of the Negro soldiers who fought in the war into the mainstream American society. However, the reality was that the war itself had witnessed several discriminatory practices which countermanded the objective of equality that was sought to be attained. The practices of segregation of black battalions, the relegation of black soldiers to menial chores, paying them les pay as compared to white soldiers despite their equivalent bravery and valour in war, were all clearly discriminatory practices. The characteristics of slavery lay in the discrimination and segregatory practices, such as separate seating arrangements and relegating blacks to an inferior role in all aspects. Black soldiers enlisting in the war were in theory, free men, but in reality they were anything but free, because they were subjected to the same discriminatory practices, as if they were still slaves. In the reconstruction period, measures such as the GI Bill and constitutional amendments were instituted, but as the narration above has shown, these measures were still discriminatory. Although they signified the federal goal of equality for all men including the Negro, the actual practice and execution of these laws was left in the hands of local and state authorities rather than executed by federal authorities pushing hard to achieve the goals of the Union and the Civil War. Hence, in Southern states in particular, the state authorities were able to countermand the spirit of the legislation and continue to perpetuate racist and discriminatory practices by simply refusing to allow Negros to have access to some of the reliefs available in the Bill. The example of Posey is just one example of how the local authority made it impossible for him to achieve the funds necessary for a college education on the grounds that there were no jobs available in the mainstream economy for those blacks who sought to compete on an equal basis with the Whites. The attempt made was to relegate him into the vocational category, a category that whites were more comfortable with because it fitted their perception of Negros occupying an inferior role in society. On the basis of this analysis, it is therefore possible to draw an inference that the discrimination that persisted into the reconstruction period could very well have been the result of the existing society at the time, where the white race was not yet prepared to accept Negros as equals. Many more years would be required before the spirit of the Civil War and the spirit of the legislation and measures instituted to integrate Negros into the mainstream and end segregation would actually bear fruit through Martin Luther King Jr’s crusade for freedom and true emancipation of the Negros from slavery.. References Harrison, John, 2001. “The lawfulness of the reconstruction amendments”, The University of Chicago Law Review, 68(2): 375-462 “History of the colored troops in the American Civil War”, retrieved September 1, 2010 from: http://americancivilwar.com/colored/histofcoloredtroops.html Horton, Lois E, 1999. “From Class to race in early America: Northern post emancipation racial reconstruction”, Journal of the Early Republic, 19(4):629-649 Humes, Edward, 2006. “How the GI Bill shunted blacks into vocational training”, The Journal of Blacks in higher Education, 53: 92-104 The fight for equal rights: Black soldiers in the Civil War. Retrieved September 1, 2010 from: http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/ Read More