International Journal of Naval History

The Genesis of the

Minority Recruiting Program

at the U.S. Naval Academy, 1965–1976

Robert J. Schneller, Jr., U.S. Naval Historical Center

Although the Navy’s official post World War II racial policy espoused equal opportunity, the reality ranged from outright discrimination to what an official in the Kennedy administration termed “passive non-discrimination,”[1] best described as doing nothing for or against black people in terms of recruitment, training, or promotion. While the service accepted qualified blacks, it took little or no positive action to diversify its uniformed personnel before the mid-1960s. As a result, the proportion of blacks serving in the Navy remained below the percentage of blacks in American society and their numbers in the officer corps remained negligible.[2] 

The Naval Academy followed a similar course. Like the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BuPers), the Academy had no minority recruiting program. Fifty-one African Americans entered the Academy between 1945 and 1964. They accounted for 0.2 percent of the 22,392 midshipmen in the Classes of 1949 through 1968. On average during this period, only three blacks became midshipmen and two graduated each year.[3] 

Racism explains the dearth of African American midshipmen before 1965. The Navy’s racist policy in the early days of World War II struck a discordant note in the black community that reverberated for decades. Even as late as the mid-sixties, mention of the Navy in the black community conjured up images of white officers with black sailors shining their shoes, serving their food, or washing their dishes. These images kept African Americans away from the Naval Academy in droves. 

For many African Americans who did ponder the journey to Annapolis, racism stopped them before they ever got started. A black kid simply did not have the same chance to enter the Academy as a white kid. In many parts of the country, high school guidance counselors talked black students out of applying to the Academy. [4] Other black kids were barred from many of the schools that specialized in preparing candidates for the Academy. [5] Until the civil rights movement dethroned Jim Crow, no southern congressman was likely to jeopardize his political career by appointing an African American. In fact, no African American entered the Academy with an appointment from a state in the old Confederacy until 1967.[6] 

Meanwhile, race relations in American society underwent a revolution. The civil rights movement swelled from a handful of voices challenging the “separate but equal” doctrine in federal court to a massive chorus demanding nothing less than full voting rights for African Americans and an end to Jim Crow segregation. Bus boycotts, sit-ins, freedom rides, street marches, and other forms of non-violent protest in Montgomery, Selma, Birmingham, Greensboro, and a thousand other cities and towns precipitated passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This legislation accorded southern blacks the fundamental rights of citizenship that most whites had long taken for granted. 

With the Navy being an arm of the federal government and the Naval Academy a national institution, they, too, felt pressure to reform. In June 1962, President John F. Kennedy announced the formation of an Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunity in the Armed Forces chaired by Gerhard Gesell. Its purpose was to eliminate discrimination against minority military personnel. The Gesell Committee discovered that the proportion of black officers stood at 3.2 percent in the Army, 1.2 percent in the Air Force, and 0.2 percent each in the Marine Corps and the Navy. In its initial report, the committee declared: “To increase the pitifully small number of Negro officers, energetic efforts must be made to raise the number of Negroes in the Academies.”[7] 

In response to the Gesell Committee, Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara released a directive on 26 July 1963 that inaugurated an aggressive new racial policy for the Department of Defense. Among other things, the policy sought to increase the proportion of black officers throughout the armed forces. [8] 

During the first half of the sixties, the Navy sought to increase minority recruitment by ad hoc measures and launched a couple of isolated and ineffective efforts to recruit African Americans for the Academy. The Academy did not, however, launch a sustained minority recruiting program.[9] 

It was direct intervention by the President and the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) that propelled the Academy toward proportional black enrollment. Upon taking office, Lyndon Johnson made “equal rights for all Americans whatever their race or color” his top priority, and “affirmative action” became embedded in the lexicon of rights-consciousness during his administration. In the midst of securing passage of the voting rights legislation during the summer of 1965, LBJ noticed the dearth of African Americans at the Naval Academy. During a meeting at the White House on 3 August, NAACP leader Roy Wilkins “beefed” to him that the Academy had only nine black midshipmen in its 4,100-man student body, citing the figure as a conspicuous example of discrimination in the armed forces. The Military Academy had 29 blacks in a student body of 2,700, or 1.1 percent. The Air Force Academy had 17 blacks in a student body of 2,900, or 0.6 percent. The Naval Academy’s 9 blacks accounted for just 0.2 percent.[10] 

Immediately after the meeting with Wilkins, Johnson telephoned Secretary of the Navy Paul Nitze and ordered him to double the number of blacks enrolled at the Academy before classes began that fall. Nitze convinced the President of the impracticality of this directive and LBJ rescinded it the next day, but it had its intended effect. Rear Admiral Draper Kauffman, the Academy’s Superintendent promised to match or exceed number of blacks enrolled at the other academies in future years without lowering admission standards. LBJ wanted the Academy to enroll 30 new black plebes a year. As Kauffman later reflected, “President Johnson knew that if he came up with such a sweeping order, even if we were not able to follow it, we would darned well be working hard to improve the situation. He was very successful in shaking the very dickens out of us.”[11] 

Admiral Kauffman got black upperclassmen involved in recruiting almost immediately. Working with the midshipman radio club, they put together 13 half-hour radio segments on the life of blacks at the Academy, which were broadcast by African American radio stations in Georgia and the Carolinas. At Kauffman’s request, all six black midshipmen in the Classes of 1967 and 1968 participated in Operation Information, which involved midshipmen getting four more days of leave at Christmastime and spring break so that they could speak to students and civic groups and make radio and television appearances in their hometowns.[12] 

In the fall of 1965, the Navy launched a recruiting campaign to increase black enrollment at the Academy. The Secretary of the Navy’s office, the Bureau of Naval Personnel, and the Academy itself each played a part. They pursued minority recruiting along three avenues: informing black communities of the opportunities available at the Academy, encouraging qualified young men to apply, and assisting them in getting nominations. The Navy followed these same avenues throughout Admiral Kauffman’s superintendency. Each October, the Academy sent out recruiting letters to 1,000 African American National Merit Scholars in their senior year of high school. Black midshipmen remained active in Operation Information. BuPers screened and processed the applications of all prospective midshipmen. In 1966, the Bureau instituted a special minority recruiting program within its Naval Academy Midshipman Branch. Regular Navy recruiters worked with high school officials to identify and establish personal contact with potential minority candidates. The Special Civilian Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy lobbied Congressmen to appoint the most promising candidates.[13]

After two years, the three-pronged recruiting effort more than doubled black enrollment at the Academy. Twelve African Americans entered the Academy in the summer of 1966 and 12 more in the summer of 1967.[14] These figures fell far short of LBJ’s goal of enrolling 30 black plebes a year, however. 

In 1967, the Navy hired an advertising firm to facilitate recruitment of African Americans. Recruiting films, posters, and advertisements in newspapers, magazines, and television began to feature black sailors and officers in racially integrated activities.[15] 

In July 1968, Rear Admiral James F. Calvert relieved Kauffman. Calvert faced recruiting problems from the start. When Calvert arrived in Annapolis in June 1968, Kauffman told him that the Academy had come within thirteen people of not being able to fill the Class of 1972 with qualified midshipmen. Total enrollment had dropped 6 percent since 1967. Kauffman believed that widespread student protest against the war in Vietnam was fostering a general anti-military attitude among college-age kids.[16] 

Before then, the Academy never really had to “recruit” anyone except athletes and minorities, for qualified majority applicants had always outnumbered available berths. Since 1962, the Academy’s primary recruitment effort had been the Naval Academy Information Program, commonly called the Blue and Gold Program, administered by the Academy’s Candidate Guidance office, established that same year. The Blue and Gold Program consisted of Academy alumni, Reserve officers, and civilians who provided information and assisted prospective midshipmen in the admissions process. 

In 1969,the Academy instituted a more formal recruiting organization. On 14 March, Calvert formed the Recruiting Committee, with himself as chairman, to direct and plan the Academy’s recruiting effort and to coordinate and all the various agencies involved in it. The Recruiting Committee members included, among others, the Superintendent, Commandant, Academic Dean, Dean of Admissions, and the head of the Naval Academy Branch in BuPers. That summer (25 July 1969) Calvert established the Office of the Director, Recruitment and Candidate Guidance (DRCG), assigned a Navy line captain as its director, and charged it with spearheading the midshipman recruiting effort. The Recruitment and Candidate Guidance Office continued to direct the Blue and Gold Program and administer Operation Information and similar programs.[17] 

Admiral Calvert faced difficulties on the minority recruiting front as well. A report submitted by a member of the admissions committee in August 1968 pointed out a number of deficiencies in the current approach. The few black midshipmen participating in Operation Information could only reach a limited audience. The letters sent to black National Merit Scholars targeted the very individuals most sought by all kinds of recruiters and were thus unlikely to yield large numbers of candidates. Despite the doubling of black enrollment since 1965, African Americans still made up less than 1 percent of the student body. The report concluded that the Academy needed to rethink its approach. It suggested broadening the dissemination of information to include programs for inner city minority youth. The Academy began contacting Upward Bound, College Bound, Aspira, and other such programs in the spring of 1969.[18] 

Black enrollment climbed slowly over the next few years. In 1968, 16 African Americans entered the Academy in the Class of 1972. In 1969, 18 blacks entered with 1973. In 1970, 21 entered with 1974.[19] 

BuPers, meanwhile, laid a new minority pipeline to the Academy through the Naval Academy Preparatory School (NAPS). In 1968, the bureau developed the Broadened Opportunity for Officer Selection and Training (BOOST) program to prepare educationally deprived minorities for the Naval Academy and other programs by means of a special college preparatory course open to both enlisted men and civilians.[20] 

These efforts were not producing enough black midshipmen to suit Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt. Soon after becoming the CNO, Zumwalt noticed that African Americans still constituted little more than 1 percent of the Brigade of Midshipmen. He believed that a black enrollment of 3 percent to 4 percent “should be an easily achievable initial goal.” On 23 November 1970, the VCNO directed the Chief of Naval Personnel (CNP) to submit a plan of action and milestones for achieving that goal.[21] 

The Chief of Naval Personnel recommended a goal of bringing in 35 black midshipmen in June 1971, with an increase of at least ten per year through June 1974. Factoring in attrition, this goal would yield a black enrollment of 3.75 percent by the latter date. To increase black enrollment the CNP preferred to intensify the recruiting effort and expand the selection base of qualified black candidates rather than reducing academic qualifications or lowering academic entrance standards for black candidates.[22] 

Admiral Zumwalt had his own special assistant for minority affairs, Lieutenant Commander William Norman, review the CNP’s proposals. Norman agreed with the CNP’s philosophy for increasing black enrollment, but he deemed his enrollment goals to be inadequate. Instead, he proposed to accession 50–57 black midshipmen in June 1971 and 75–100 black midshipmen per class for the next three years. To facilitate meeting that goal, he recommended

·        Assigning 50 black Blue and Gold officers in every naval district;

·        Obtaining 200 black guidance counselors, principals, and teachers at Blue and Gold affiliates;

·        Amplifying efforts to inform black high school students about the Academy through high school visits and advertisements in black media;

·        Notifying black candidates of acceptance as early as possible to preempt other academic institutions; and

·        Increasing efforts to recruit black athletes, particularly basketball and football players. 

The Chief of Naval Personnel approved Norman’s proposals. The CNO concurred and set a goal of enrolling 50 to 57 black midshipmen in June 1971 and 75 to 100 per class thereafter, so that the proportion of black midshipmen at the Academy would reflect America’s black population. By 1976, the Academy had adopted most of the procedures that Norman had recommended for intensifying the minority recruiting effort and broadening the selection base of qualified black candidates.[23] 

Meanwhile, in the fall of 1970, the Chief of Naval Personnel telephoned Admiral Calvert. Without discussing any of these proposals, he ordered him to increase minority enrollment at the Academy to achieve Zumwalt’s goal of proportional representation. For the rest of his tour as Superintendent, Calvert investigated and implemented organizational and procedural changes to increase African American enrollment.[24] 

Fortunately for Admiral Calvert, a new officer had just arrived in Annapolis to spearhead the minority recruiting effort. Lieutenant Ken Johnson had been assigned to the Recruitment and Candidate Guidance Office as the Academy’s first Minority Affairs Officer in August 1970. Johnson’s job was to assist the Director of Recruitment and Candidate Guidance in identifying and assisting qualified members of minority groups interested in attending the Academy. Johnson realized that the Academy needed to increase its outreach into the black community. During the next several months, he traveled extensively around the country to areas of high minority concentration and talked to high school students, principals, guidance counselors, and minority organizations about the opportunities for African Americans and other groups at the Naval Academy. In one month alone, he visited high schools in Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Colorado, and Michigan. He found that students in black high schools, even in nearby Baltimore, knew little about the Academy and had little interest in it. Slowly but surely, he established personal contact with increasing numbers of black candidates. 

When Lieutenant Johnson first arrived in Annapolis, the Blue and Gold organization included only one black officer. Johnson sought to remedy this situation by inviting black teachers and youth program counselors to participate in the Blue and Gold Program as affiliates. Johnson also persuaded 43 black naval officers to become Blue and Gold officers. [25] 

Lieutenant Johnson’s efforts produced dramatic results. In the summer of 1971, 46 African Americans entered with the Class of 1975, marking an important turning point. Blacks had accounted for an average of 1 percent of each incoming class at the Academy between the summer of 1965 and the summer of 1970. In the summer of 1971, 3.5 percent of the incoming plebes were black. Never again would the proportion drop below that number. In the summer of 1972, a record number of 78 blacks entered with 1976, largely due to Johnson’s extensive traveling and the efforts made by the new black Blue and Gold officers and affiliates.[26] 

The Academy’s minority recruiting effort progressed apace under Admiral Calvert’s successor, Vice Admiral William P. Mack, who became Superintendent in June 1972. Shortly thereafter, the job of recruiting midshipmen shifted from BuPers to the Academy itself. The name of the Recruitment and Candidate Guidance Office was changed to the Candidate Guidance Office. Effective 1 October 1972, the Naval Academy Admissions Branch of BuPers was transferred to Leahy Hall and placed under the authority of the Director of Candidate Guidance. The Candidate Guidance Office now had full responsibility for identifying, recruiting, and counseling candidates for admission to the Academy. Finally, the billet of Congressional Liaison Officer was established in the Candidate Guidance Office and charged with full-time duty as liaison with congressional staff members responsible for nominations to the service academies. Two years later, the Superintendent authorized another minority affairs officer billet, now designated Minority Affairs Counselor, to aid as a field recruiter.[27] 

In 1973, 119 African Americans entered with the Class of 1977. This figure marked a peak that has yet to be surpassed. The next year, 94 blacks entered with the Class of 1978. Admiral Mack attributed the “dip” to increased competition from civilian institutions. The CNO’s Assistant for Special Projects, however, attributed it to the increase of the minimum SAT score in math from 550 to 580. In 1975, the Academy again raised the minimum SAT score in math, from 580 to 600, because so many qualified candidates applied that the administration felt it could be more selective. That summer, the number of blacks who entered in 1979 fell to 55.[28] 

The plunge alarmed naval leaders. Admiral James L. Holloway III, Zumwalt’s successor as CNO, expressed concern to the Chief of Naval Personnel that the minority recruitment program at the Academy had “lost considerable momentum.” He suggested cooperative effort between the Academy and the Recruiting Command in minority recruiting.[29] 

Admiral Mack had already initiated such an effort. In February 1975, he and the Chief of Naval Personnel devised a joint national advertising campaign for both the Academy and the NROTC, featuring ads in Ebony, Black Enterprises, and other black publications and direct mailings to high school seniors and juniors. The Academy itself had done little advertising to this point, because it had rarely suffered from want of majority applicants. To be sure the Bureau of Naval Personnel and Recruiting Command had been advertising in the black community since 1967, and the Academy had occasionally placed promotional features in newspapers, but the Academy itself had never before mounted a sustained advertising effort in black media.[30] 

In 1976, the Academy authorized a third Minority Affairs Counselor billet for the Candidate Guidance staff and produced a pamphlet designed specifically for the minority candidate.[31] 

These efforts failed to reproduce the dramatic results of 1973. The number of African Americans admitted to the Academy each year had reached somewhat of a plateau, with an average of 65 entering in each class for the next ten years.[32] No doubt the continuing competition from colleges, universities, and other service academies; the end of the draft in 1973; and the relative saturation point being reached by the Academy’s minority recruiting effort contributed to the leveling off of the number of blacks entering. 

In conclusion, direct intervention by the President of the United States and the Chief of Naval Operations propelled the Academy toward affirmative action. LBJ’s order to double the Academy’s black enrollment in July 1965 shook the dickens out of Admiral Kauffman and spurred him into launching a formal, sustained minority recruiting effort, the first in the Academy’s history. Although the Academy had met President Johnson’s goal of doubling black enrollment by the time Admiral Zumwalt became CNO, it still wasn’t moving fast enough toward proportional representation to suit him. If Zumwalt didn’t shake the dickens out of Admiral Calvert, he certainly spurred him to intensify the Academy’s minority recruiting effort. As a result, the number of black plebes coming in each year skyrocketed from a handful to scores. 

By the time of America’s Bicentennial celebration in July 1976, the Academy had a permanent, well-developed, and fully functioning minority recruiting program in place. The program consisted of four principal elements: informing the black community about the Academy, encouraging young black men to apply, educating them through BOOST and at NAPS to get them academically qualified, and assisting them in obtaining congressional appointments. 

In 1965, the Bureau of Naval Personnel spearheaded the Academy’s recruiting effort, with help from the Academy’s Blue and Gold program. No office within BuPers dealt specifically with minority recruiting for Annapolis. In 1976, the Director of Candidate Guidance in Leahy Hall spearheaded the Academy’s overall recruiting effort. His organization included three Minority Affairs Counselors, whose specific mission was to increase minority enrollment. 

When Jack Kennedy ran for office in 1960, the Academy ignored the black community. When Jimmy Carter ran for office in 1976, the Academy marketed there. The most effective means during this period proved to be the traveling and personal contacts made by the Minority Affairs staff in the Candidate Guidance Office. 

Throughout this period, the greatest challenge in minority recruiting remained the dearth of fully qualified and motivated black candidates. As affirmative action became the law of the land, all the services, most civilian colleges and universities, and large segments of private industry lined up to recruit the highly qualified “instant Negro,” as the June 1966 issued of Ebony magazine had put it.[33] With school systems only slowly emerging from de jure and de facto segregation during this period, the pool of highly qualified African Americans remained small and competition for them remained fierce. The Navy not only had to recover from its World War II hangover, but had to compete with civilian schools offering full academic rides without the service obligation and prospect of long separation from loved ones. The solution the Academy hit upon was not to lower standards but to broaden the selection base by getting academically under-qualified blacks up to speed scholastically. This strategy failed to meet the Academy’s goal of proportional representation. Nevertheless, it increased the number of black midshipmen from a token presence to a significant minority that more realistically reflected the population of the United States. It also represented a genuine effort to overcome the Navy’s racist past.