The golden thirteen : how Black men won the right to wear Navy gold / Dan C. Goldberg.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-261) and index.

"We're sending you up to Great Lakes." -- "Don't put your time in Negroes." -- "I just don't believe you can do the job." -- "We are discriminated against in every way." -- "Would it be demanding too much to demand full citizenship?" -- "A cordial spirit of experimentation" -- "As good as any fighting men the US Navy has" -- "You are now men of Hampton." -- "I feel very emphatically that we should commission a few Negroes." -- "You can make me an officer, but my parents made me a gentleman." -- "His intelligence and judgment are exceptional." -- "You forget the color and remember the rank." -- "There is that salute you never got."

"This is the story of the thirteen black men who broke one of the military's most rigid racial barriers and integrated the officer corps of the United States Navy."-- Provided by publisher.

Until 1942, black men in the Navy could hold jobs only as cleaners and cooks. The Navy reluctantly decided to select the first black men to undergo officer training in 1944, after enormous pressure from ordinary citizens and civil rights leaders. These men, segregated and sworn to secrecy, ultimately passed their exams with the highest average of any class in Navy history. In March 1944, these sailors became officers, the first black men to wear the gold stripes. Goldberg shows that, even though white men refused to salute them, refused to eat at their table, and refused to accept that black men could be superior to them in rank, the Golden Thirteen persevered, determined to hold their heads high and set an example that would inspire generations to come. -- adapted from Amazon info.