At a ceremony commemorating the day President Harry Truman ordered the desegregation of the armed forces, military officials and black leaders said the US must not rest on its laurels.
ÒMy hope and expectation is that, in the years ahead, more African-Americans will staff the armed forces at the highest levels,Ó Defence Secretary Robert Gates told a crowd that included many black former service members. ÒWe must make sure the American military continues to be a great engine of progress and equality.Ó
While blacks make up about 17 per cent of the total force, they are just 9 per cent of all officers, according to data obtained and analysed by The Associated Press.
The rarity of blacks in the top ranks is apparent in one startling statistic: Only one of the 38 four-star generals or admirals serving as of May was black. And just 10 black men have ever gained four-star rank -- five in the Army, four in the Air Force and one in the Navy, according to the Pentagon.
Best known among the four-stars is retired Gen Colin Powell, who later became the country's first black secretary of state, under President George W Bush.
In a stirring salute in the Capitol Rotunda yesterday, Powell said that as a youngster in 1948, it never occurred to him he could rise to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
But when he joined the military 10 years later, Òthey no longer cared whether I was black or white, immigrant kid or not,Ó Powell told the crowd.
