CONTRIBUTIONS OF BLACK AMERICANS TO ELECTRONIC RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, PRODUCTION DISTRIBUTION, AND TRAINING AT FORT MONMOUTH 1940-1982 BY THOMAS E. DANIELS ELECTRONIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT COMMAND COMBAT SURVEILLANCE AND TARGET ACQUISITION LABORATORY FEBRUARY    1983

The intent or purpose of this booklet is as follows: 1. To promote an awareness of technological contributions      by blacks collectively at Fort Monmouth. 2. To promote an awareness of blacks in many nontraditional      areas of technology, science, and engineering. 3. To promote an awareness of many high level black men and      women, including military who served at Fort Monmouth. 4. To inspire youths, particularly blacks and minorities,     to consider science and engineering careers by providing role models. 5. To dispel the myths that blacks can only achieve in      sports and entertainment.

     During the early 40's and World War II, some blacks were given the opportunity to enter technical fields heretofore denied to them because of racial discrimination. Some were hired as engineers, physicists, draftsmen and technicians. Some engineers, initially hired as draftsmen were converted to engineers several years later. Some black females were trained to become draftspersons or illustrators while others were hired as Junior Professional Assistants and subsequently became engineers. However, most black females were hired in the traditional clerical areas.
    These early days were not without problems because most of the black technical people were coming from outside the local Monmouth area, some from engineering schools in the north, but the vast majority were from southern black colleges. This meant that there were needs for housing and other necessities of life. Many felt that they were coming north away from the repressive discrimination and segregation of the south only to find it here
in Monmouth County. Housing, restaurants, movies, beaches, schools, transpor-tation and the like were either segregated or barred to persons of color.
    A story that appeared on the history of the present EVANS installation revealed that about 1937 the site was occupied by the KKK under Grand Wizard Evans. Of course, Evans Signal Labs was named for the late COL Paul Wesley Evans, the World War I Signal Officer. So the area, not withstanding the dreaded KKK, was hostile to blacks.
    The blacks, however, survived. In the 1942-1943 time frame, some five black technicians were trained in the installation, operation and maintenance of the SCR-270 and SCR-271 early warning surveillance radars. These radars were used to detect aircraft and for air defense. This all black team consisting of James Harris, Richard Nixon, Charles Henry, James Roach, and Joseph Gomillion installed these radars at Montauk Point, Long Island, North Turo, Commecticut, and Chatham, Mass.
    Other technicians such as Harold Kuntz and Jess Jetter who started in the 1940-44 era and held the title Radio Mechanic worked on short range radars such as the SCR-268 while the SCR-270 and SCR-271 were considered long range. Other early black technicians included William (Bill) Johnson, Danny Jackson, William (Bill) Stone, George Morris, Frank Marshall, Awood Johnson, William Zanders, James Mcmillan, and Leroy Brown.
    Some of the early black pioneers in electronic engineering were William (Bill) Gould, William (Bill) Jones and James P. Scott or "J.P.", as he was known. Bill Gould and Bill Jones held the highest ranks during the early 1940's. They were section chiefs. They started out at Fort Hancock where the radar research and development was taking place while the Evans Area was being prepared to be sub-sequently the Signal Corps Radar Laboratory. Radar was a classified word and was taken out of the laboratory name.
    The period 1940-1942 saw approximately 20 black male engineers and physicists arriving and immediately being assigned work in communications, radar, sound ranging, electron tubes, components and countermeasures. Among the early ones other than those previously cited were John G. Carter, Leroy Hutson, Dr. Walter McAfee, Arthur Randals, William Townes, Thomas Baldwin, Waymon Mitchell, Elmer Godwin, Curtis Murphy, Ben B*luford, Robert Smith, Robert Bundy, Kermit Johnson, Barnett Greer, Lincoln Galvin, and Harold Tate. Some of these were originally hired as draftsmen or technicians and later converted to engineers.
    Harold Tate was subsequently to be one of two blacks commissioned as officers, sent to Harvard and MIT, and reassigned to the laboratories.
Thomas Baldwin, a physicist was assigned to a submarine detection group in late 1941. The Army was responsible for submarine detection within the 3 mile limit at that time. He was responsible for sound ranging techniques.
    During these years most blacks who were fortunate to have completed degrees in physics or engineering knew that professional opportunities were limited to teaching, preaching, the legal or medical profession. Most with scientific backgrounds found doors shut to them in private industry but found survival in the Post Office. The Post Office was supposed to have had the largest con-centration of educated blacks than any other agency. Opportunities were limited to menial or janitorial jobs in many other agencies. One of the products of the Treasury Department was an ex-messenger, Arthur Randals, black physicist. He later was to receive prestigious recognition from the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) for the best technical paper of the year for an author under 30 years of age. His work was on high power interdigital magnetrons used in radar. The paper was completed in 1948 and the award was made in 1950.
    The early 1940's (1942-1946) was also an emancipation for some black women from the traditional roles as maids, cooks, and teachers. In Monmouth County during those times the resort industry and farming industry had no need for clerk typists, draftspersons, engineers, mathematicians, in general and, in particular, anything else significant, if you were black. The outbreak of World War II pro-vided opportunities for subprofessionals such as technicians and draftspersons for Caroline Harris, now a mechanical engineering draftsperson, Tabitha Brown, Elthina Parker, now with CECOM, Helen Porter, formerly with ECOM, and Geraldine Roberts, retired.
    During 1944 they were sent to the Signal Corps Civilian Training School and were taught drafting. After training they were sent to different laboratories to prepare layouts for publications, wiring schematics, charts and graphs for engineering reports and technical manuals.
    Some of the technicians of the time included Virginia Smith and Harriet Speights, a crystal grinder.
    Another area for black women was engineering. If it was difficult for black men to be given an opportunity it was even more so for black women. However, the shortage of men in 1942 saw Corrynne Godwin and Muriel Robinson Baldwin and two others from Brooklyn College all college graduates hired as Junior Professional Assistants. Corrynne Godwin was later to be one of the only two black women electronic engineers at Fort Monmouth and to attain the GS-13 grade level. Helen Harris was hired as a chemist in 1942 but left in the Reduction in Force of 1946. Enid Gittens and Connie Gray from Hunter College were hired in the professional area.
    Corleza Holiman, the other black woman electronic engineer to reach the GS-13 level started in 1943 in the engineers in training program. She became
an electronic engineer in 1947 as a result of that program. All these women were college graduates with mathematics or science majors.
    Mary Tate who was a Computer Specialist GS-13 in CORADCOM at the time of her retirement started as a laboratory technician in 1945. She later became a mathematician doing scientific and engineering calculations. In 1948 she became a professional as a computer analyst.