The Philosophical History of Equal Opportunity
A Dissertation Covering the Ideas that Influenced Policy
The United States Navy is an organization that is comprised of all volunteers. Every man and woman serving in the navy has the same rights and protections afforded to them. However, this was not always the case. There were times in the history of the navy when minorities such as African Americans, women, and other races were discriminated against simply because of their skin color or gender. The changes in thought and ideas throughout history have played a significant role in the evolution of equality and the prevention of discrimination. While the policies currently in force are not perfect, they are certainly much more inclusive than during the early Cold War period.
African American involvement has always been present in the United States Navy. From the beginning of the Continental Navy on October 13, 1775. (1) Through every subsequent conflict, African Americans have performed various roles and had differing rights and inclusion. What made the difference for this group in terms of equality? Was it Executive Order 9981? Was it the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s? This project focuses on examining the thoughts and ideas that changed the policies throughout the history of the navy and the men who turned those policies into practice.
Admiral (ADM) Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., the youngest Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), produced 121 “Z-Grams” during his time in office. (2) Many of these were focused on the retention and recruitment of sailors. In Z-Gram 66, he wrote, “Ours must be a navy family that recognizes no artificial barriers of race, color, or religion. There is no Black navy, no White Navy-just one navy-The United States Navy.” (3) What caused ADM Zumwalt to issue this document about equality in the navy in the first place? He had been in office a short five months at this point, and the riots onboard ships were still years in the future. (4,5)
This project seeks to uncover the events, ideas, and thoughts that provoked ADM Zumwalt and others like him to change how the navy worked with minority groups and how they created the Equal Opportunity Policy that is still in effect today. (5) The focus of the study will be on the intellectual history of equal opportunity and what provided the groundwork for the advancement of minorities in not only inclusion but equal inclusion in the navy.
The author of this project, having experienced the Equal Opportunity Program in person, has first-hand knowledge of this policy and how it provides equal opportunity and how it works to prevent discrimination. The differences between military and civilian equal opportunity and anti-discrimination were apparent during the time spent on active duty. To understand this phenomenon more fully, the author began reading about the histories of both military and civilian discrimination, equal opportunity policies, and civil rights reforms. This led to a fascination with the lack of information and study that had been conducted on these ideas in the military.
This research and project will try to understand how this policy became second nature to the navy and the armed forces by exploring who was responsible for creating the policy and what influenced them to create such a long-standing one. Examining the influences responsible for the changes will uncover more than just events and outcomes. This will expose changes in American society and culture that infiltrated the navy and other branches of the military.
Research methods will include an examination of the involvement of African Americans in all United States conflicts and how the policies for and against them evolved with each conflict. This will allow recognition of the patterns of the policies that included and excluded minorities with an emphasis on this one demographic. Focusing on this group that had been traditionally excluded from full participation will uncover the pattern of thought that provided equality. The evolution of equality as an over-arching concept will be explored by applying research from sources such as the Veterans History Project, personal interviews, first-hand experience, and correspondence and letters from archives.
Many other examinations of equal opportunity focus on specific aspects of the policy, such as retention, advancement, separation (when a service member leaves the military), options for particular ratings (the job performed in the navy), and other exact portions of the policies.
Equal opportunity has not readily been accepted in the past. Only through revolutionary thought and action has this concept become a part of the everyday lives of Americans and sailors. Exposing the thoughts, actions, and events that occurred in the past that led to reform in the navy, a better idea of how policies like this make America a diverse and understanding nation will emerge.
1. “The Birth of the Navy of the United States,” Navy Birthday, Naval History and Heritage Command, November 13, 2017, https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/commemorations-toolkits/navy-birthday/OriginsNavy/the-birth-of-the-navy-of-the-united-states.html.
2. “Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. Nineteenth Chief of Naval Operations, July 1, 1970-July 1, 1974,” Notable People, Naval History and Heritage Command, October 7, 2016, https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/people/chiefs-of-naval-operations/admiral-elmo-r--zumwalt-jr-.html#:~:text=Nixon%20nominated%20him%20as%20CNO,at%20the%20age%20of%2079.
3. Elmo Zumwalt, Jr., “Z-Gram 66: Equal Opportunity in the Navy,” Naval History and Heritage Command, December 17, 1970, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/z/list-z-grams/z-gram-66.html.
4. Mark D. Faram, “Race riot at sea-1972 Kitty Hawk incident fueled fleet-wide unrest,” New York Times, February 28, 2017,https://www.navytimes.com/military-honor/black-military-history/2017/02/28/race-riot-at-sea-1972-kitty-hawk-incident-fueled-fleet-wide-unrest/.
5. Brad Lendon, “US aircraft carrier, site of 1972 race riot at sea, on way to scrapyard,” ABC17 News, March 14, 2022, https://abc17news.com/news/national-world/cnn-asia-pacific/2022/03/14/us-aircraft-carrier-site-of-a-1972-race-riot-at-sea-on-way-to-scrapyard/.
6. Chief of Naval Operations, “Navy Harassment Prevention and Military Equal Opportunity Program Manual, OPNAVINST 5354.1H,” November 3, 2021, https://www.secnav.navy.mil/doni/Directives/05000%20General%20Management%20Security%20and%20Safety%20Services/05-300%20Manpower%20Personnel%20Support/5354.1H.pdf
