ARMED SERVICES: Keelhauling the United States Navy

TWO years ago Chief of Naval Operations Elmo Zumwalt set about changing what he called the "lily-white racist Navy" into an even-handed institution that would be able to attract recruits and keep and promote blacks within its ranks. Of all his innovative ideas, the attempt to fully integrate the Navy seemed to many to be the most courageous and substantial.

Yet precisely because of that attempt, the Navy has found itself buffeted by a series of racial outbreaks. In early October, the decks of the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, which was en route...

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