By Dr. Terri A. Dickerson, Civil Rights Director, United States Coast Guard Retired Colonel Kevin Hawkins, United States Army

Our workforce and nation have the opportunity to reflect on a monumental turning point in our history. On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed a pair of executive orders, the combination of which banned racial segregation in the armed forces and federal civil service. This article offers context on this occurrence and why it was so significant.

Standing orders and even a federal law passed in 1792 officially barred Black people from bearing arms for the United States Army. Nonetheless, free, and enslaved people of African heritage served in American conflicts since before the United States was an independent, free nation. During the American Revolution, some 5,000 Black combatants served in various roles including the artillery, the infantry and some working as laborers and even musicians. In that conflict and the War of 1812, some were even sent to serve in place of their slaveholders.

African American cuttermen were among the first to fight against the Royal Navy in the War of 1812. The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (USRCS), predecessor to the United States Coast Guard (USCG), utilized both free and enslaved Black people, and restricted their roles to cooks, stewards and seamen. In the 1880s, the U.S. Lighthouse Service (USLHS), another superseding agency of the Coast Guard, utilized some enslaved and free Black men and women, at times...

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