Michael E. Lynch
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813177984
- eISBN:
- 9780813177991
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813177984.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Military History
Almond had taken on one of the most difficult jobs in the Army. He dealt with all the normal challenges a division commander faced, such as housing, feeding, training, and equipping his unit, with ...
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Almond had taken on one of the most difficult jobs in the Army. He dealt with all the normal challenges a division commander faced, such as housing, feeding, training, and equipping his unit, with scarce resources. The 92nd experienced some of the same turbulence other divisions did, including providing cadres of officers and NCOs to other African-American units. The educational limitations of his troops, the prevailing social environment, and growing pressure from the black community and his officers made his task all the more difficult. After several months of training at widely separated locations, Almond was directed to consolidate his unit at remote Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Many of the racial problems he experienced at the smaller bases became magnified as the unit came together as a whole. Brig. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis visited to investigate racial problems.Less
Almond had taken on one of the most difficult jobs in the Army. He dealt with all the normal challenges a division commander faced, such as housing, feeding, training, and equipping his unit, with scarce resources. The 92nd experienced some of the same turbulence other divisions did, including providing cadres of officers and NCOs to other African-American units. The educational limitations of his troops, the prevailing social environment, and growing pressure from the black community and his officers made his task all the more difficult. After several months of training at widely separated locations, Almond was directed to consolidate his unit at remote Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Many of the racial problems he experienced at the smaller bases became magnified as the unit came together as a whole. Brig. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis visited to investigate racial problems.
David Goldberg
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469633626
- eISBN:
- 9781469633633
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469633626.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines how Black working-class activism and the political ascendancy of Fiorello La Guardia created a small window of opportunity to join the FDNY that was seized by a small number of ...
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This chapter examines how Black working-class activism and the political ascendancy of Fiorello La Guardia created a small window of opportunity to join the FDNY that was seized by a small number of Black New Yorkers during the late 1930s and early 1940s. While relatively small, this influx of Black firefighters sparked racial backlash from the department’s overwhelming white majority, which attempted to formally institutionalize racism and racial segregation within the department. To combat this, New York’s Black firefighters formed the nation’s first Black firefighters’ organization, The Vulcan Society, in the early 1940s. The group emerged out of, and was a part of, the Black working-class oriented Black united front that developed in New York during the 1930s and early 1940s. Like similar Black labor organizations of the time, the Vulcan Society joined workplace and community-based struggles, and successfully mobilized to prevent the formal segregation of the FDNY.Less
This chapter examines how Black working-class activism and the political ascendancy of Fiorello La Guardia created a small window of opportunity to join the FDNY that was seized by a small number of Black New Yorkers during the late 1930s and early 1940s. While relatively small, this influx of Black firefighters sparked racial backlash from the department’s overwhelming white majority, which attempted to formally institutionalize racism and racial segregation within the department. To combat this, New York’s Black firefighters formed the nation’s first Black firefighters’ organization, The Vulcan Society, in the early 1940s. The group emerged out of, and was a part of, the Black working-class oriented Black united front that developed in New York during the 1930s and early 1940s. Like similar Black labor organizations of the time, the Vulcan Society joined workplace and community-based struggles, and successfully mobilized to prevent the formal segregation of the FDNY.
