Looking for a Few Good African American Officers: Context and the Mission to Increase the Percentage of African Americans Seeking an Officer's Commission in the United States Marine Corps
Abstract
Since President Harry S. Truman s signing of Executive Order 9981 (Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces), the United States Marine Corps has continuously lagged behind its sister services in regards to fully integrating African Americans and other minorities in its organizational structure. The pasts attempts to establish initiatives to increase the Corps officer ranks in a timely manner were slow in progress and have reached the attention of Congress and the senior levels of Marine Corps leadership. From a cultural and community perspective, African Americans have had to face tremendous adversity in the United States. With the establishments of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the court decision Brown vs. Board of Education, African Americans continue to fight to establish more prominent roles in the United States Government and American industry. Even though the current Commander-In-Chief is of mixed race, which shows our country s tremendous progress, efforts to remedy the Marine Corps efforts in increasing its African American officer population have a long way to go. This MMS paper will not be an endeavor to complain about current circumstances, but offer professional perspective to: 1. Show how the problem manifested itself in the Marine Corps through historical references and research. 2. Shed light on how the Marine Corps attempted to remedy the problem. 3. Highlight how past culture/community influence has possibly hindered current Officer recruitment in the Marine Corps. 4. Critically analyze the Marine Corps officer recruiting process and recommend different initiatives to enhance and improve the recruiting process.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 07, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA600567
Entities
People
- Dominique B. Neal
Organizations
- Marine Corps University