ABSTRACT
I[,] a commissioned offi cer of the United States Army, am denied the rights and privileges of an offi cer. I am excluded by members of my own rank and station in the Army. I am denied the privilege to use the Offi cer’s Club. Although members of my race are used as waiters and general help around the club, I am denied the privilege of using it. It has been a source of embarrassment for a Negro soldier working there to ask me if I am denied the privilege of the club. I ask you, gentlemen, what would you say or do if a soldier, who respected you as an offi cer of the Army, knew that you, an offi cer sworn to uphold and defend the principles of this democracy, were being denied the very thing you are and asking them to lay down their life for. How can we demand the respect of men under our command when we are not respected by members of our own rank.1
