For the last eight. Heres hoping to organize an annual to celebrate and recognize d. C. Emancipation act becoming law on april 16th of 1862 and a free of a little over 3000 slave persons held in the district along in the series was named in honor of Benjamin Drummond, who was born around 1843 in nassau, new york. Drummond, a 24 year old black slave owner, was the first patient admitted to naval hospital, now known as the old vic. The hospital, when it opened on october 1st in 1866. Drummond was initially in assassins while serving on the u. S. Morning light. He was actually shot in the leg. He would receive care for that injury. A naval hospital, orleans, on december six, 1864, joining in the navy and came to be a patient in this building on october first of 1866, when he when his boat, he opened so we all dedicate celebration to benjamin charlton. We dedicate this Panel Discussion in which the lives and experience of africanamericans who served in the u. S. To Benjamin Franklin as well as the sit in Benjamin Drummond hall. So thank to our sponsor national capital. So without further delay let introduce our Dynamic Panel today. First, we have dr. Regina akers. She is native of washington, d. C. She received her bachelors of u. S. History from the Catholic University of america, receiving both her masters and doctorate in u. S. Public history, some howard university. Shes a member of the public History Education section in history class and the history and heritage names where she has served as an archivist historian since 1987. She enjoys the National Reputation as a subject expert and expert controversy, personnel issues in the United States military with the emphasis on women and africanamericans in the navy. She has served as first chair of the committee and senior historians advisory committee, and the commands oral history team. Her publications include the navys first enlisted women patriotic. That was naval history at heritage may 2013. She is the coauthor of the United States navy oral history guide. She is present at a myriad symposia ranging from the Wilson Center to the National Archives, and she has given numerous media interviews for hostages and assignments, including captain America Civil War sails project, the dont ask, dont tell task force and the advisory committee. The congressional effort to establish the womans History Museum on the national mall. Shes also a key contributor to the patriot act and corridor renovation project. She is the 2020 force tug of war, a cohesive unit for outstanding career achievements in oral history. Please help me welcome dr. Gina. Ness. Please welcome. That was dr. Edward valentino jr. Ross. He received his bachelors in history from the United States military in 2010 and his doctorate in history from Rice University in may 20. In 2016, everett began working the Buffalo SoldiersNational Museum, houston, texas as an assistant curator. Since july 2020 and has worked as curator at the National Museum of the United States. His research focuses on race in identity and the u. S. Military, and his work appears in war history. He is currently on his book manuscript black on blue racism shift in military. Occupation 1866 to 1900, which is under control at the university of virginia press. Please help me welcome you. And they will pay top of station with dr. Joseph, who is emeritus professor history at howard university. He taught history and served in various ministry positions from 1984 until his retirement in 2017. He received a bachelors degree in sociology from, Delaware University and both masters and doctoral degrees from Northern Illinois university, specializing 19th century states history. From 1977 to 1984, he was editor of the Freedom SocietySociety Prize and the university of Maryland College park working. On the first four volumes of the policy Award Winning series titled freedom by documentary history participation,. 1861 to 1867. He collaborated with other actors in the project to produce three other studies of civil war games, the patient, one of which realized the documentary history of slavery, freedom and civil war, was awarded the lincoln prize in 1984. He is the author of sleep is from slavery to burning capitalism and the conflict to nations such as georgia, 1832 1880. That is when the university of North Carolina press 1992 his faith articles and chapters in the civil war era include information, overviews on the experiences of black slaves in the u. S. Navy, including black in blue during the civil war, which appears in the pro bowl quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration fall 2001. His most recent book, illusions of emancipation, pursuit of freedom, equality, the twilight slavery, published by the University Press in 2019, was awarded the prestigious bancroft prize by Columbia University and the john book prize in American Civil War history by the university of virginia. The book was also a finalist for the lincoln. Dr. Niekerk serves as president of Southern Historical association. So please, i can. Make everyone in the room and virtually rejoining us today and certainly hope that you enjoy the conversation. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Jacobs. Good evening, everybody. Its a pleasure to have you here this evening. And i hope we wont disappoint you. I have a feeling we wont. But let me just give you a little brief outline about we want to approach the topic tonight. As you know, its a very broad one, even though its focused specifically on the matters of race and racism within navy over literally the course of its history. We do want to break up the presentation in line with our own areas of interest and specializations and research. So with that in mind, ill be the first one to speak because my interest in the civil war ill talk a little bit about the previous Civil War Navy, a bit about the Civil War Navy. And then ill hand matters over to eddie, who will then cover later 19th century down into the 20th century. And last but not least, regina will cover the World War Two period. And after. Now, what we thought would do would be to say a little bit about how we got interested in the topic in the first place, and then sort dive into it for a few minutes. So in my case, as dr. Jacobs introduction made clear in the 1970s and 1980s, i work with the freedmen and Southern Society project at university of maryland. And what that project was about was records at the National Archives to tell the history of emancipation during the civil war. So thats really what my interest has been literally since ive been in graduate school. Understood. And that that the dynamic whereby slavery broke down and then a whole new world in a sense had to be created and the ashes of slavery. So military service clearly was an important part of that. Whats more, given the fact that the United States army was. And youll recall that africanamericans were not permitted to serve in the United States army until 1863, after Congress Passed certain legislation, president lincoln promulgated his emancipation proclamation. Its only after that that black men were admitted into the army. So to point out, which i and my colleagues would on the work on how military service helped to end slavery, it was quite natural for to turn to the military records. After all, there was a bureau of colored troops that a nice starting point into the history of black soldiers during the civil war. Then by of understanding their experience we could hope to understand emancipation on the navy side of military service. However, it was a completely different story because the navy was never segregated from its origins in the colonial period. Naval vessels. First of the colonies. Then of the United States navy were always integrated. In fact, down through the antebellum period. If anything, the us officials who presided over navy enlistments put a cap on how many African American men could serve. It was 5 of the crew, any given vessel that was about to undertake a cruise. But frequently that number was exceeded. So there was a Significant Group of africanamericans who had served in the United States navy from before it was dry states navy, and that remained true right down to the start of the civil war. And at point, as you may or may not know, the u. S. Naval fleet was very small, probably 40. Some functioning vessels. And over the course of the war, that number increased to more than 600. So navy as a service had as much of a challenge in terms of enlisting men to these vessels as the army did, the point at which the conflict began. So the navy, to some extent, could rely on the presence of African Americans. But most of the men who served in the us navy africanamerican men had us who served in the navy before the civil war were free in the north. Many of them had had some kind of seafaring experience as merchant seamen, as men who served on whaling ships, coastal ferries, things of that nature. So they had some knowledge of the sea and they had some awareness of how vessels operated. So those men came into the u. S. Navy relatively quickly after start of hostilities. But i should point out that there were africanamerican southerners who also served. So norfolk was a major naval base. And norfolk, of course, is in virginia, was a slave state. So numbers of men who some of whom were enslaved had, in effect, been hired to the United States navy, other free men, and around norfolk also. So my point here simply with regard to the start of the civil war is that the number of africanamericans was small, but it was not zero. And that men often had some pre war service, but as the navy expanded, then the need for more sailors obviously increased exponentially. And that first, as u. S. Naval vessels to operate in waters to the confederacy or in the confederacy for example, along the Chesapeake Bay coast of virginia, africanamericans who had been enslaved and who were seeking freedom, frequently sought cover and sought protect with u. S. Naval vessels. And so from the very beginning of the conflict, commanders of u. S. Naval vessels had to contend with who were presenting themselves as volunteers for service, the United States navy. So within a matter of months, the Service Began accepting these men into the service. Now, you may be familiar with the term contraband in reference to africanamericans who had been enslaved and who were becoming freed during the course, the civil war. Now this term originated at hampton, virginia, when general butler, you may remember, referred to three men who had run away from as contraband of war and use that as an excuse to give them federal protection. So the secretary of the navy advised commanders that they could use similar logic to take the men who were fleeing from slavery on board vessels and put them to work. And wouldnt you know, it . But they raided the men under the term contraband, which had existed before the start of the civil war. Obviously in the us navy. But what that meant was that these men who were coming out of slavery were being looked down upon essentially as formerly enslaved people who have little by way of seafaring skills, and perhaps therefore contribute to the proper functioning of a naval vessel. But for the men who were from the north and who had experience, they were not treated the same way. So there were real distinctions that that sometimes carried into the postcivil war period, but probably not much as we might have hoped. But my point here again, with regard to the distinction, the contraband and, the men who were free born, is that the freeborn men who had the prior seafarer experience could have been rated as seamen. That could have been rated as ordinary seamen. So the Rating System was not segregated in the sense that men with dark complexion would be rated as contrabands, which of course was at the lowest end of the pay scale as well. So men with experience who knew the ropes, as it were, could be treated as able seamen and paid accordingly. So theres variation between the northern men and the southern men between men with prior seafaring experience and men without it. Now, where the matter really becomes interesting is in that rating scale from contraband, which was the equivalent of the prewar rating of boy, which typically was reserved for young men who were 18 years of age or lower, lower aged, whose had to give them permission to come into the naval service. So here are the contrabands then being a with enslavement also being associated the rating of boy, which again implies novice inexperience, perhaps under aged. So the contrabands that burden with them throughout their terms of service but the men who were freeborn did not necessarily have that same kind of burden. Now, another point id like to make with regard to the ratings structure is that once men were assigned to a vessel, then essentially the captain, the vessel or his lieutenant would assign the ratings on board the ship. So men with experience in could in fact have been rated as petty officers on board a particular vessels and some them in fact would have been enviable petty officer ratings in fact gave them Real Authority over their fellow shipmates. And there was probably nothing like that in the United States, even though you could make the case that a Sergeant Major in an africanamerican regiment would have had similar kinds of authority. So the rating structure within the navy was a little bit more flexible, perhaps, than that. In the army. But again, it would have been men who had Prior Experience or real strength of character that. The vessel commanders would have recognized and wanted to reward. Now, there were no commissioned officers in United States navy. In fact, as regina will point out, its not until World War Two, as many of you know, that africanamerican men were commissioned as officers. As far as can tell, there were no warrant officers in the United States navy, the civil war. So the structure was to some extent flexible. Again, to some extent, i dont want to overdo or overexaggerate the ability of africanamerican men move up the ladder, if you will, of naval ratings. But nonetheless, there were real limits to and none could even think about naval officers. So on the one hand, the ships are integrated, but they werent equal, integral and without equality as a way to conceive of this, in many cases they were discriminated against, especially the contrabands. So in a pacific squadron there was a ship called the st marys that took in perhaps as many as 70 or 80 men who have been enlisted from maryland and then sent to the Pacific Ocean on st marys to chase down confederate predatory vessels in the Pacific Ocean. They were not only labeled as contrabands, but they were as inferior by their fellowship mates and a group of what they described as new york ruffians europeanamerican men who came into the service were also assigned the same ship and they also they almost came to blows so routinely in the evening during the dog watches as the men were relaxing deck. The africanamericans sailors the contrabands on st marys subjected to having all kinds of things thrown at them. Sharp objects for guns and all kinds of things of that nature. And got to the point where they just said, no, were not doing this anymore. And they threatened mutiny. And then the officers of the ship had to step in. So theres a case where the contrabands were treated very much differently, discriminated in all kinds of ways. And abused by their fellow white sailors. But in other cases, the navy justice system, for example war and Court Martial cases that we were talking about did not discriminate against black sailors. There was a case of two sailors, an irishman and an africanamerican. Well, i think were in the gulf squadron. They got into an argument. They started badmouthing each other and no doubt disrespecting each others mothers and what have you. And got into a fistfight. And before too long, both of them fell to the deck. And the irish head crashed into the hard deck and his skull fractured and he died within hours. If not days of that accident. So the africanamerican sailor was grabbed and charged with murder. He went through the Court Martial proceedings and the court found him not guilty. So as we think about cases like that, you wonder how this man would have fared in the civilian justice system, fo