How We Under-Appreciate Our Military— the Nation’s Laboratory for a Melting Pot Society

Stereotype: The military is stodgy and slow to change. Reality: The military has been America’s melting pot since the Civil War.

Story: When I published a paper on executive orders that changed employment law, I was shocked to learn two things: (1) the executive branch—namely, presidents— were much more influential than Congress in paving the way for antidiscrimination laws, and (2) the military was usually the laboratory for trying out these innovations that pushed social boundaries.

Examples: Civil War: The Union Army had over 200,000 African Americans, 10% of the entire military force (37,000 died at war). Most were escaped slaves. The Union Army was segregated; but the fact that the Union Army accepted African Americans into their ranks was path-breaking at the time.

WW II: Executive Order 8802: FDR signed this path-breaking order in 1941. It prohibited the federal government from discriminating in hiring based on their race, color, creed, or national origin. It also prohibited defense contractors— businesses that supplied the military— from discriminating. This ended segregation in shipbuilding and aircraft plants.

Cold War/Korean War: President Truman issued Executive Order 9981, abolishing race discrimination in all branches of the U.S. military. He also signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act.

President Eisenhower desegregated military schools, hospitals, and bases.

Post-Persian Gulf War/9-11: "President Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don't Tell” (DADT) allowed gays, bisexuals, and lesbians, to serve honorably in the military. President George W. Bush continued the policy. President Obama removed the secrecy requirement in 2011; and expanded the policy in 2016 to allow transgender troops to serve.

Today marks the first time since the time of President Lincoln that a U.S. President has marched the military backward.

The lesson I learned from my research is that American society tasks military leaders and troops with the really hard job of figuring out how to integrate when we want to segregate, come out when we want to hide, transition when we are pressured not to … all while fighting wars to defend our ideals and principles. 

The military worked these things out before the rest of us could go there. And then, a tweet changed all of this.