When Tyson called the number, it became clear that he had been referred to a
small post across town with an all-black membership. When he returned to the
white post to fill out an application, this time with two other black veterans,
he still didn't know how much trouble he and his friends would have getting in.
But they, and at least seven other black veterans who applied, spent months
trying to join the largest post in the region. The post dragged out the
process, not even responding to their applications for six months.

Meanwhile, the post conducted a recruiting campaign, offering a free tie to
anyone in their group who could bring in five new members. At least a dozen
white veterans, including Durham Mayor Nick Tennyson, joined the group during
the months the black vets were trying to get in. (Post 7 Commander Les Dasch
personally dropped off an application after Tennyson expressed an interest in
joining, says the mayor.)

In November, six months after the first three black veterans had applied for
membership, all 10 of the African-American applicants finally received a form
letter from Post 7 Adjutant Tom Sexton. They were told they needed an American
Legion member in good standing as a sponsor. They also had to provide copies of
their discharge papers and $ 20 in dues.

Some of the black veterans sought the advice of civil rights attorney Julius
Chambers, chancellor of Durham's historically black North Carolina Central
University. Chambers said the case piqued his interest because he remembered
that when he was a law student at the nearby University of North Carolina in the
'50s, the Chapel Hill American Legion held social events for law students --
white law students. He confirmed that the Legion, which has been a veteran's
service organization since 1919 and is chartered by the U.S. Congress, is
required to follow federal civil rights laws. "You can't have a federally
chartered entity that discriminates," Chambers told the group.

He advised the men to reapply. Seven did one afternoon in December. As they
milled around the foyer, post assistant manager Wilma Garner took applications,
dues and copies of discharge papers. It was Tyson's third visit to the club.
Post 7 Commander Dasch says that the black veterans had not been admitted before
because they had not provided the necessary proof of service or dues. "They
just come in and lay an application down and think they are a member," he
complains. There was no discrimination in the post, he says, pointing out that
in recent months, "we also signed in a Hispanic, an Oriental," who did provide
paperwork. In fact, Post 7 had at least one black member, according to the
commander of the "black" Post 175.

But Post 7 remained white and unwelcoming to blacks. White Durham
psychologist Steven Giles [who is the author's husband] applied for membership
at the behest of the black veterans. Giles fulfilled most of his service in
the Air Force reserves. Yet it was Giles, not the combat veterans, who received
a warm welcome at Post 7. On his first visit, he was invited for a drink at the
bar. When he filled out his application, Giles said he didn't have his
discharge papers handy -- would the post accept some other documents that
mentioned his terms of service? They would. All Giles had to do, the service
officer told him, was come to the next meeting, and he would be sworn in. He
received no form letter, heard nothing about needing a sponsor or personal
identification. The next week, on Oct. 7, the membership voted him in.

Steve Thomas, a spokesman at the American Legion's national headquarters in
Indianapolis, says that "posts have a right to determine their own membership."
However, "they aren't allowed to exclude based on race," he says, because "a
veteran is a veteran." While the national office of the Legion does not gather
statistics on the race of its members or officials, it's clear from the monthly
magazine for members, The American Legion, that the organization is still geared
toward World War II veterans and is politically conservative. And of the 75
people pictured in illustrations and photos in the December issue, one man in a
group picture was black.

In North Carolina and at the national level, "I find very few blacks in any
type of leadership," says Wayne Manley, the veterans' service officer for Durham
County, who is black. "Are we represented proportionately? We are not." The
Disabled American Veterans, another service organization, and the sprawling
federal Department of Veterans Affairs "represent the veterans' population
better," Manley says.

In most urban areas, veterans say the Legion is integrated. Yet in suburban
and rural areas, "some of these posts are just about all black members, and some
are just about all white members," says Bill Rockel, who is a member of an
all-white, small-town post in North Carolina.

It's impossible to know if a post is willfully segregated until someone of
another race shows an interest, and in most American Legion posts, no one is
trying to upset the balance. But after a warning call from an associate of
Chambers' in January and notice that a story about the black vets would appear
in the daily paper, a representative of Post 7 called each of the black veterans
to invite them to a Jan. 11 meeting. Six attended, finally making it past the
foyer. When the prospective members left the meeting room so that the
membership could vote on their induction, Post Commander Dasch reported that the
applications were in order.

The vote was not unanimous. It was 25 to 6 "with four members leaving in
protest as the new members were escorted back into the meeting," Giles says.
"To their credit, the officers did the right thing. Several gave supportive
speeches." But he also heard a patron at the bar offer that it was "a sad but
inevitable day."

It was 1999, and integration had arrived.

Pat Arnow lives in Durham, where she works as a freelance writer. She is a former culture editor of In These Times.

March 21, 1999

Note: Before the American Legion post was integrated, Pat Arnow wrote the story about the veterans' efforts for the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer. That story helped bring about integration.

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