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    "title": "Statement by Truman Gibson, Jr.",
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    "collections": [
        "Philleo Nash Papers",
        "White House Files"
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        "African American soldiers",
        "Segregation",
        "Armed forces",
        "World War, 1939-1945"
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    "ocrText": "neg hejro typs (stml Itly\nSTATEMENT OF TRUMAN K. GIBSON, JR.,\nCIVILIAN AIDE TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR,\n18H\nAT PRESS CONFERENCE, MONDAY, APRIL 9, 1945,\nWASHINGTON, D. C.\nThe press has already reported that Negro and white Infantrymen are now fight-\ning side by side in Germany. In France I visited some of the Negro platoons before\nthey left for the front and talked with the men being trained at the Reinforcement\nTraining Center. What I saw and heard was evidence that the Supreme Command in\nSHAEF was following in racial matters what must be the basic policy of any Army,\nin any war, namely, that of utilizing most efficiently all available resources of\nmen and materiel to defeat the enemy.\nSuch a policy is working. At the Training Center a white noncommissioned\nveteran, who was assisting in the training program, said graphically, if ungram-\nmatically, about the Negro trainees: \"Sure they'll get along all right. It don't\nmatter whose firing next to you when you're both killing Krauts.' The Texas-born,\nbattle-scarred Commanding Officer of the Center was confident that the trainees,\nall of whom volunteered for the training course with all noncommissioned officers\ntaking a reduction to the grade of private, would do well in combat. He said,\n\"These men will fight because they have been trained and treated just like the\nother soldiers here and they know they are going to be used in the same manner,\nin the same Divisions. They want to fight. When the first group went out we had\nonly two cases of AWOL among all the Negro soldiers in the Center. We found out\nwhere the two men were when we received a wire from a front line Division Commander\ninforming us that they had reported to him to fight,\"\nThe estimate of this officer has been confirmed by the report of an official\nobserver who spent time with some of the platoons in the fighting around Remagen\nwhere the first of the units was committed to combat. He reported that the Negro\nseldiers fought as well as any others and that the mistakes they made were the\nsame as those made by other troops lacking battle experience.\nThis policy of making the best use of all soldiers is further evidenced in\nthe excellent performance of the Service of Supply troops throughout the theater.\nThese troops, a large percentage of whom are Negroes, regard themselves as soldiers\nperforming vital jobs. They had a very real identification with the fighting\nfront. In one Quartermaster Depot, manned by Negro personnel, the first sergeant\nwhen questioned as to why the men were working voluntarily around the clock, re-\nplied: \"We have got to keep the supplies moving and all of us want to do our part\"\nThe officers in this unit were white and were enthusiastic about their men and\ntheir work. Discussing their men, Negro officers in a Quartermaster Truck Company\nsaid that on many occasions their drivers had insisted on delivering white Infan-\ntrymen into dangerous territory late at night far in advance of the debarkation\npoints because \"they hated to see the 'Doughs' walk.\"\nIn the European Theater of Operations are the first units of Negro nurses\nand Wacs to go overseas. The nurses, stationed at a hospital in the north of\nEngland, are busy treating American soldiers who have been wounded in action.\nThey are described by their Commanding Officer as being the equals professionally\nof any nurses in the area. The Wacs officer and man the Central Postal Directory\nfor the entire European Theater of Operations. Their efficiency has drawn repeated\npraise from the Commanding Officer of the United Kingdom Base Section. They have\nadjusted exceptionally well in the short time they have been overseas to their\nwork and the community in which they are situated.\nGenerally, on both the Continent and in England, it was apparent that the\nattitude of the Supreme Command that there should be no discrimination against any\nsoldier on account of his race had reached all elements of the Command. Discrimi-\nnatory acts and incidents that have occurred were regarded by the soldiers as\nbeing individual in nature. As a result of my trip to the Mediterranean and\nEuropean Theaters I am impressed that such differences as exist between soldiers\nare not due to racial characteristics but to such factors as training, motivation,\nand environment. The fact that the Commands in these theaters believe this is\nencouraging. Certainly the record being made by Negro soldiers gives the lie to\nany charge that Negroes cannot and will not fight.\nEND\nPress Branch\nWar Department Bureau of Public Relations\nLIBA\nApril 9, 1945\n11:00 A.M."
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