Perspective: Pearl Harbor was the site of Black heroism and protests against racism
At the start of the war, Navy policies dictated that Black volunteers and draftees could only be mess attendants, where they would serve and feed White officers. In the Navy’s view, segregation was necessary for general ship efficiency. “This policy not only serves the best interests of the Navy and the country, but serves as well the best interests of Negroes themselves,” Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox said.
“Being classified as a race, as mess attendants only,” came at a steep cost. The Navy offered White sailors valuable job training, education, health care, character building and travel. By contrast, Black Americans paid taxes to support the U.S. Naval Academy and maintain naval bases, facilities and training programs, from which they were excluded.
In Birmingham, Ellsberry’s parents and six younger siblings sat in the church’s front row. His mother thought of how Julius had written her just days before the attack to apologize for missing Christmas for the second year in a row. He enclosed a money order to buy presents for the family. The next letter she received was an official telegram from the Navy, saying that her son was lost in action in the line of duty and in service to his country. She was devastated to lose him.
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