Greg Freeman: Blacks Who Were The First To Serve As Sailors Fought The Enemy - And Racism

Headline: BLACKS WHO WERE THE FIRST TO SERVE AS SAILORS FOUGHT THE ENEMY - AND RACISM - IN WWII
Reporter: By Greg Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Sun., 2/17/2002
Section: METRO, Page: C3, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

The crew of the Mason
Before Black History Month gets away from us, we probably shouldn't forget the history created by the USS Mason DE529.

Thomas Howard of Cool Valley will never forget.
Howard was aboard the Mason, an escort ship that made history as the first Navy ship to go into war with a black crew. The ship, whose officers were white, was big news when it was launched in Boston in 1944. "Everyone came out for the launch, " Howard recalled recently. "The governor, the mayor, folks from Hollywood like Dorothy Dandridge and Ossie Davis - they were all there."

Before the Mason's launch, blacks in the Navy were given menial work - serving white officers, shining shoes or handling mess duties. But with some nudging from Eleanor Roosevelt, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an order allowing blacks to serve as sailors.
The crew of the Mason had more than its share of white skeptics. "People were saying that we were too stupid to operate a ship, that we didn't have the intelligence to do anything like that, " said Howard, 76. "So I think we were even more determined to succeed."
Many whites called the Mason "Eleanor's folly."

Howard and other sailors who served aboard the ship found themselves fighting the enemy, racism and rough weather in the North Atlantic, all at the same time.

The black sailors often ran into trouble with their white counterparts when the ship would stop at various ports.
     "There was entertainment at the USO in Plymouth, England, but the white sailors didn't want us dancing with the English women and caused trouble about it, " Howard said.
     "Everywhere we went, we were subject to ridicule by white American soldiers. At one point, at a place in Plymouth called the Savoy, we were dancing with the native ladies when a group of white soldiers came along and asked them, 'How can you possibly dance with these so-and-sos?'" A fight broke out, Howard said. "Finally, the Marines came in and helped us out."
     They also dealt with discrimination at various ports when they would attempt to order food. "We'd want a place to get a Coke and a hot dog, " Howard said. "But we often found that white servicemen had approached them before we got there and told them not to serve us."

Howard said he was surprised by the attitudes. He conceded that his life had been somewhat insulated, growing up in East St. Louis. "I guess I was naive, " he said. "I knew that in St. Louis, we didn't have to go to the back of the streetcar or anything like that. At that time, I didn't know about the segregated toilets and segregated water fountains in St. Louis. I found out about that later."

In October 1944, the Mason had been at sea a month, guiding an unusual convoy of tugs and barges at very slow speeds across the ocean to Europe, when the weather turned bad. Barges broke loose and became dangerously huge projectiles. About a dozen crew members were lost at sea.
Then, without warning, the ship's deck split open. Water poured into the engine room. The cold water froze as soon as it hit the deck. The crew braved wind velocities of up to 40 mph, and the seas were up to about 40 feet. At one point, the ship took a 70-degree roll that made some crew members wonder if they would come back up.
But the crew miraculously welded a temporary fix to the crack. Two hours later they managed to bring the ship safely into port in England, and after strengthening the weld and pumping out the engine room, went right back out to sea to help rescue 12 other ships.

The crew escorted six convoys across the perilous North Atlantic from the weeks leading up to the D-Day invasion until V-E Day in 1945. The crew also protected transport ships from Nazi submarines.

The Mason saved lives, and that made a difference in the perception of some whites.
In 1944, reporter Ollie Stewart wrote in the Baltimore Afro-American from the Italian front: "I have seen colored and white who glared at each other before a bombing get quite chummy after death whistled by in big hunks of shrapnel."
Still, when World War II ended, whites who had served aboard escort ships were honored. But there were no honors for the black sailors.

That changed in 1994 - nearly 50 years later, when President Bill Clinton honored those sailors. "For decades, African-Americans were missing in our memories of World War II, " Clinton told the men in a White House ceremony. "In helping to show the world what America was against, you helped to show America what America is for. You helped liberate us all from segregation."
Because of a mix-up in records here, Howard did not receive his honors at the White House. They were mailed to him afterward.

Last year, the Navy honored the Mason when it launched a 6,500-ton destroyer that bears the same name.

Howard is proud of the service that he and his fellow sailors performed. "We showed this country what we could do if we were only given a chance, " he said.
About 35 of the original 160-man crew of the Mason are believed to be alive today, and St. Louis is fortunate to be able to count Thomas Howard among them.
What better way to celebrate Black History Month than with someone who was part of it?

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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