Afro - American Ex - GI Dempsey Travis ponders Jim Crow Army of WW II



Source: The Good War: An Oral History of World War II, Studs Terkel meticulously slanted interviews of "What it was like!"

"At Aberdeen I'm assigned to all these guys doing KP duty, kitchen police, trash detail, truck detail, pickin' up garbage.

"For three weeks, I'm layin' around.

"I don't have an assignment.

"One day an officer sends for me: Travis, I see you have a good record. What would you like to do?

"What can I do?

"I'm a musician.

"He said, We don't have a band here. But your IQ indicates you can do much more than that.

"The next day I see a Major Sloan, a tall, red - faced, freckled, moon - shaped - faced, big - blue - eyed ex - Texas Ranger.

"He said, Can you type?

"I said, No, sir.

Have you ever worked in an office?

"No, sir.

"He reaches into a drawer and pulls out a typing book.

"He calls in a corporal and says, You give Private Travis that desk behind you. He's gonna learn how to type.

"I'll never forget Major Sloan.

"He recognized that as a piano player I used my fingers, and it wouldn't take much for me to become a typist.

"He kept at me for about a month.

"I got up to fifty - five words a minute.

"He called me back: Have you ever worked in a store?

"No, sir."

"He said, I want you to work in the post exchange as a clerk.

"In about three months, he said, We're gonna make you assistant manager.

"Within two months, I was the manager.

"But that was not enough for him.

"He decided he wants me to manage the white PX as well.

"This was early '45, just before Roosevelt died.

"They were beginning to integrate the facilities.

"So I was the first guy to become manager of an integrated PX in the state of Maryland.

"I own first prize for the best - managed store in the Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

"Sloan brought the post commander down to me, a general: We're gonna have the newspapers take pictures of you, 'cause we're very proud of what you're doin'.

"A couple of days later, he came back: Travis, that picture will never appear in the paper. Those fellas can't stand the idea of a black man being able to operate a post exchange in this manner.

"The picture never appeared.

"I found the most sympathetic white men in the army were actually southerners.*

"I found this to be true in civilian life as well.

"The best breaks I've got as a businessman have come from guys out of Alabama and Georgia.

"If they decide they're gonna go with you, they go all the dam*n way.

"And no forked tongue. (laughs.)..."


*I heard the same thing from a well - informed Icelander during my time there from 1972 - 1974.

Moral?

Not all southerners are 1960s South Louisiana - American Catholics, heh, heh!