Radio Rootz' This Day in History

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Key 1

On this day, October 31, in 1946

  • produced by Arturo Contreras
  • in

Shortly after the United States Army began accepting African American recruits, they declared that the black enlistees needed score of 100 on the Army General Classification Test to qualify, while white enlistees only needed to earn a 70. The army also restricted black officers from choosing their own assignments. Despite the controversial and discriminatory nature of these policies the Army continued to enforce them using a document called the Gillem Board Report as its justification. Seeing as how the army was obviously trying to restrict the number of black soldiers, it is ironic that they now aggressively recruit people-of-color, who just happen to make up a disproportionate percentage of military recruits these days.

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