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Social change. the most important reform in the history of our armed service which is desegregation in 1948. joining me now is colonel irving smith a decorated army ranger and professor of sociology. colonel, when president trueman ordered desegregation of our military back in 1948 the military cause ad fuse. they weren't happy about it. why was that? >> well you know things in our society and to include the military sometimes when the law changes things change du jur but not the fact. with the military what generally find is that typically if there's a change we obey orders. that's what we're...

Other place as magical as america where a kid like me could actually milwaukee it to those levels and i'm sure my grandparents are looking down at me right now and very proud. >> itches reading some of the thing you published. one of them was about the increased in field grade officers of african-american field grade officer in the army basically opportune last 24 years. it's doubled. can you elaborate on that? >> that was a paper i wrote several years ago why black officers still fail. i tried to do a restudy of a paper that mr. butler had done years before. what i found is actually we have m...

Where maybe we haven't necessarily been at the forefront but we have been trendsetters. great example was the repeal of don't-ask, don't-tell in 2010. soon after that law was repealed several states followed suit. >> yeah. and passed marriage equality i would agree with you. how would you say your personal story -- you're a professor at west point. "forbes" magazine said west point is the number one college in the country. was it difficult for your journey >> my journey has been very interesting. i would argue for me it's very improbable that i'm here. i'm the son of irving smith jr. whose dad...