President Harry Truman’s Executive Order 9982 ended segregation in the U.S. military, allowing all Americans to serve in any military role based on their qualifications, and to rise in rank based on their performance and potential. Although African Americans made up a third of army enlisted soldiers by the 1970s, they were underrepresented among officers, with less than four percent until the mid-1970s and no black generals from 1947 to 1968. This disparity stemmed from institutional racism, continued to exist alongside colorblind policies after 1948, and persisted until equal opportunity programs began in the 1960s as part of the burgeoning American civil rights movement. While black officers broke barriers in combat during the Vietnam War, the first integrated U.S. military conflict, they suffered from lasting inequities in opportunities for military schooling and key assignments that led to promotion. When presented in 1972 with statistical evidence of these inequities, the army adopted affirmative action measures to address ongoing gaps in the promotion and assignment of black officers. The army’s application of affirmative action to the officer corps reduced historic inequities and created lasting, if uneven and contested, social change in one of the nation’s largest institutions.

Author

• Bowery, Jr., Charles Ryland

Language

• en

Keyword

• African Americans
• Army
• Officers
• Armed Forces

Date created

• 2026

Type of Work

• Dissertation

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• History

Degree

• Ph.D.

Advisor

• Arnesen, Eric

Committee Member(s)

• Bailey, Beth
• Guglielmo, Thomas
• Brunsman, Denver

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/nv935383z