Blunder & Precedent

Last week the War Department, in trying to rectify a political blunder, broke a precedent as old as the Army. The blunder was the Administration's announcement, last month, that Negro soldiers would continue to be segregated from white troops in the expanded U. S. Army. The announcement put every big black community in the country on its ear, set newspapers and mass meetings crying "Jim Crow." Last week the Army did what it could to make amends: upped its only Negro colonel of Regulars to the rank of brigadier general.

Able, tea-colored Benjamin Oliver Davis, whose son, Captain B. O. Davis Jr., is the only other black line officer in the regular service, was the first man of his race to reach general officer rank in the U. S. Army. Leaving his old command, Harlem's 36th Coast Artillery, General Davis will automatically break the Army's segregation rule: his new assignment is command of a new brigade to be composed of the 9th and 10th (colored) Cavalry. All the officers under his command are white men. The Army can still replace them with Negro reserve officers, but that would violate its statement of policy of last month, which also said that Negro regular Army outfits would continue to be commanded by white officers. The Army's easiest way out may be to wait until General Davis reaches retirement age (64) next July.

By then the election will be over.

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