The relationship between black enlisted men and white officers was notoriously acrimonious. There were many reported instances of verbal abuse and condescending behavior from white officers toward black soldiers. One particular high-ranking white officer at Fort Huachuca, Major General Edward “Ned” Almond, was known for humiliating black enlisted men. Almond was vocal in his opinion that blacks didn’t make strong leaders and that troops of black men were successful only if white men led them. Under no circumstances would he allow any white military men to be under the command of a black officer.11 Almond was known to openly disparage the quality and performance of black soldiers, called them “boys,” and unapologetically stated that blacks were inferior to whites.

Many of the black soldiers were from urban areas such as Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, and New York. They were drafted at higher numbers than southern black men, who could be given exemptions from military service if plantation owners convinced local draft boards that they were needed to pick cotton, a staple in the war effort, since it was used in airplane tires and also to make military uniforms.12

For African Americans raised in the bustling cities of the North, Arizona was bleak, unaccommodating, and depressing. Even if their urban neighborhoods were overpopulated and impoverished, there were businesses they could patronize, including mom-and-pop stores, hotels, barbershops, hair salons, soda counters, and nightclubs. But Fort Huachuca and the surrounding small towns respected Jim Crow, excluding African Americans by means of segregation. Even on base, there were two separate hospitals for blacks and whites, two sets of civilian quarters for the local residents who lived and worked there, two service clubs for military personnel of any rank, and, most glaringly, two separate officers’ clubs.13

An inspector general’s report in August 1942 highlighted the problems with the segregated facilities at Fort Huachuca and the morale issues they caused. The report noted that Jim Crow policies directly impacted the performance of black enlisted men.

The morale of the black soldiers set the tone for the black nurses who were stationed at the base. African Americans were accustomed to being treated differently because of their skin color, but it was nonetheless surprising to black nurses that their own military would isolate them, particularly when nursing shortages would be an ongoing dilemma throughout the war.