AUL LibGuides: Maxwell and the Civil Rights Movement: Maxwell and the Movement Exhibit

Maxwell and the Movement Exhibit

The Maxwell AFB and the Movement: Civil Rights and Equal Opportunities in Montgomery, Alabama

exhibit was displayed in the Air University Library in 2019.

The first major interaction between Maxwell Air Field and the African American community of Montgomery was the 1931 move to expand the base from its original boundaries towards the small segregated neighborhood of Douglasville. The area was comprised of modest individual home lots, small farms, and a church. Despite a lawsuit to prevent eminent domain takings, Douglasville residents were forced off their properties and Maxwell appropriated the land where the flight lines and the academic circle are located today.

Aerial view showing Maxwell (on the left) and Douglasville (on the right) circa 1928

(Photo courtesy of the Air University History Office)

Plat map of part of the Douglasville neighborhood near Maxwell Field

Newspaper article regarding the construction of the Maxwell Field expansion on the old site where the community of Douglasville had been located

In June of 1941 the first all-black unit, the 4th Aviation Squadron, was established on base with duties to provide maintenance, transportation, hospital, and mess hall support. Originally housed in tents, the Airmen were moved into permanent buildings in the 1200 area of the base near the Prison Camp, several of which are still in use today. Because African American Airmen were segregated from the rest of the base, the area where they lived was nicknamed "Shantytown" and described by a reporter as "a dusty, unpaved little ghetto in which no attempt is made to even approximate the neatness and beauty of Maxwell Field, white." Other all-black outfits at Maxwell included the 2132nd Army Air Forces (AAF) Base Unit, the 42nd AAF Base Unit, the 3817th Base Service Squadron, and the "Negro Drum and Bugle Corps" which was activated in September of 1942 to fill in when the base's white band was traveling away from Montgomery.

Airman with poster for "The Greatest All Colored Air Corps Revue presented by the 4th Aviation Squadron" at Maxwell Field

(Photo courtesy of the Air University History Office)

Airman from Squadron F, 2132nd Army Air Force Base Unit

(Photo courtesy of the Air University History Office)

Airmen at a USO show

(Photo courtesy of the Air University History Office)

Airmen from the 4th Aviation Squadron and the 22nd Aviation Squadron at the Post Exchange, Gunter Field, during World War II

(Photo courtesy of the Air University History Office)

Original buildings of the 4th Aviation Squadron at Maxwell Field

With pressure from African-American communities and their white allies, the White House began integrating the Armed Forces during the 1940s through administrative directives. The first step at Maxwell was the integration of the post exchange and recreational facilities in August of 1944 which caused Alabama politicians like Senator Lister Hill and Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene “Bull” Connor to protest. President Harry Truman’s Executive Order 9981 in July of 1948 ended all official segregation in the Armed Forces and by June of the following year base commander Colonel Leslie Mulzer was forcing everyone to comply despite heavy criticism from the white community in Montgomery. By the mid-1950s the base stood out as an “Island of Integration in a Sea of Segregation” with African-American officers and enlisted participating in all types of duties and after-hours activities and being recognized by their colleagues just the same as any other Airmen.

Letter dated Aug. 31, 1944 from Eugene "Bull" Connor, Commissioner of Public Safety, to Senator Lister Hill, regarding the removal of segregation regulations at Maxwell Field.

Western Union telegram dated August 25, 1944 from Alabama Senator Lister Hill to Alabama Governor Chauncey Sparks

Lieutenent Lebert Duke, OCS 1955

SOS Orchestra, 1955

SOS 1955 yearbook dedication to

Robert Marshall Glass, Captain, United States Air Force

17 December 1920 - 24 January 1955

Captain William E. White, SOS 1956

SOS Class 56-A, Section 76

Captain Helene Nash, SOS 1957

"Captain Charles 'Chuck' Jiggetts, Section 15, was voted the outstanding speaker of SOS Class 57-C by the student body and was presented the Best Speaker Trophy. His persuasive speech, entitled 'Officer Prestige,' in which he explained the importance of conducting ourselves as officers and gentlemen, won out over very stiff competition from the outstanding speakers of the five other groups."

Airmen from SOS Class 57-A reading "Air Power: Key to Survival"

Airmen at Club 51 (1955)

Air Police Checking IDs at Warfare Systems School

Air Police at the Warfare Systems School

(Photo courtesy of the Air University History Office)

Maxwell Air Force Base Commander

Colonel Leslie G. Mulzer

(Photo courtesy of the Air University History Office)

After the Second World War Airmen from Maxwell challenged Montgomery’s system of segregated seating on city buses – this included blacks purposely sitting at the front and whites sitting in the back. In June of 1949 several African-American Airmen boarded the bus leaving base attempting to integrate the seating but were threatened with arrest and then disciplined by their commander. During the 1955-56 Bus Boycott, three airmen – Alfred Ellis, Otis A. Carlton, and Booker T. Holmes – were indicted and arrested for their role in providing transportation to the community. Realizing the sensitive nature of arresting active duty service members, the City dropped charges against the Airmen before the trial began.

Airman Otis A. Carlton arrest photo

(Photo courtesy of the Montgomery County Archives)

Airman Booker T. Holmes arrest photo

(Photo courtesy of the Montgomery County Archives)

Airman Alfred Ellis arrest photo

(Photo courtesy of the Montgomery County Archives)

Front of Airman Alfred Ellis' appearance bond

Airman Alfred Ellis' appearance bond

Rosa Parks

Find out more about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott from the Montgomery Advertiser's Montgomery Bus Boycott website and the Alabama Department of Archives and History's Boycott Leaflet

Through the 1960s, the Air Force and Maxwell were playing a more proactive role in issues involving civil rights. The base was utilized as a staging area for Federal troops and marshals who were there to back President Kennedy’s protection of Freedom Riders and the participants in the Selma to Montgomery March. Individuals on base were active in promoting equal opportunity including Captain Emmet Walden who supported and documented the local movement and Library Director Robert W. Severance who, at a meeting at Maxwell in December of 1964, led the effort to integrate the Alabama Library Association. By 1970 Air University had added race relations to their course of study curriculum and had assigned the first African-American to the faculty.

Captain Emmet Walden

Air University Library Director Robert W. Severance

Air University Curriculum Catalog, 1970-1971

Page from the 1970-1971 AU Curriculum Catalog featuring classes on social change; violence, crime, and civil disorders; race and racism; and minority groups

Air Force Regulation No. 35-78

Equal Opportunity and Treatment of Military Personnel

19 August 1964

As far along as equality had come for those in uniform, civilian employees at Maxwell still had significant barriers to advancement. Through the 1970s, there was an unwritten, yet fully active policy that if you were African-American you could not be promoted above a GS-7 level. In 1973, base employees Willie Penn and Charlie Foster, Jr. filed a racial discrimination case against Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger with the assistance of the Southern Poverty Law Center. While that case was unsuccessful a second court action begun in the early 1980s by Alicia Smiley, Odalliah Garnier and others brought about a consent decree in June of 1986 which finally allowed African-Americans to obtain equal opportunity for their careers.

Charlie Foster, Jr., an employee at Maxwell Air Force Base, was plaintiff for the Penn versus Schlesinger lawsuit

(Photo courtesy of the Air University History Office)

Odalliah Garnier (center) was one of the primary plaintiffs in the successful Smiley Versus Orr discrimination lawsuit

(Photo courtesy of the Air University History Office)

Smiley versus Orr consent degree

Through the subsequent decades progress has continued in the areas of race relations and equal opportunity at Maxwell Air Force Base. The first EEO officer, Michael Woodard, was hired in the early 1980s to assist everyone in understanding their rights and their responsibilities under the law. Starting in 1983, the base hosted an extensive Black History Week program which has grown to include the many other diverse communities that contribute to the Maxwell mosaic. The work of many individuals, of all backgrounds, who labored to improve the lives of people of color on base and within the City of Montgomery calls for continual recognition.