African Americans in U.S. Military Senior Leadership: Barriers and Progress

Introduction: African Americans and the U.S. Military

Today, of the approximately 1.3 million men and women on active duty in the U.S. armed forces, fully 43% — or about 560,000 individuals — are African Americans (Cooper, 2020). However, there is a stark and persistent paucity of senior leaders among these African American service members. Indeed, these disparate representation rates have remained stagnant for more than half a century, with little or no substantive progress having been made in reducing the gap. Although some encouraging signs are emanating from the White House and Pentagon that promise to improve African Americans' promotion opportunities in the future, the process requires time — and some observers suggest that time is no longer a luxury the U.S. armed forces enjoy.

The experience of African Americans in the U.S. armed forces is inexorably tied to more than 350 years of slavery, which began in the early 1600s, and the Jim Crow era, resulting in a nadir in American racial relations during the early part of the 20th century (Kendrick, 1998). Despite these brutally challenging and dehumanizing experiences and the obstacles in their path to equality, African Americans have served with honor and distinction in every war fought by the United States, including the Revolutionary War. According to Ender and colleagues (2015), "Indeed, a Black, 47-year-old, runaway slave named Crispus Attucks was the first American killed by a British soldier [...] in the course of events which would lead to independence in the United States" (p. 231).

Notwithstanding this extensive track record of military service, the numbers of African Americans enlisting in the armed forces has been on the decline, most notably in the U.S. Army and Marine Corps — a trend that became evident following the cessation of hostilities in Afghanistan and Iraq. The decline in enlistments in those two service branches is noteworthy because they are tasked with executing the ground component of land warfare, making them the indispensable "boots on the ground" still required for conventional war.

Although these recent modest declines in enlistments have brought the representation of African Americans more in line with their overall share of the American population, the U.S. military still provides invaluable career opportunities for many African Americans who might not be able to secure comparable benefits elsewhere (Segal & Thanner, 2007). In this regard, Ender et al. conclude that "While their numbers are currently more in line with their proportional representation in the larger society, previous representation suggested both a tradition of service, patriotism, and providing the African-American community with a major path towards career development not found in the civilian economy" (p. 233). These opportunities, however, are also characterized by the fact that minorities in general — and African Americans in particular — consider themselves far more likely to be assigned to hazardous combat scenarios, a perception further affected by ongoing reports of institutionalized racism in the armed forces over the past 30 years (Ender et al., 2015).

Notwithstanding the multiple benefits that accrue to individuals who serve in the armed forces, the combined effects of these negative perceptions may help explain the current dearth of top-ranking Black leaders in the U.S. military. There have been some notable exceptions — most notably the assignment of retired four-star Army General Lloyd Austin as the first African American Secretary of Defense — but promotion opportunities have been bleak for the vast majority of Black officers in recent years. According to Brook (2020), "The lack of Black officers in the Army's combat commands has diminished the chances for diversity in military leadership for years to come, resulting in a nearly all-white leadership of an increasingly diverse military and nation. The Army, the largest of the armed services, has made little progress in promoting officers of color, particularly Black soldiers, to commands in the past six years" (para. 4).

Brook (2020) further notes that "Black people make up 22.7% of enlisted soldiers, 16.5% of warrant officers and 11% of officers on active duty as of July [2020]. At the officer levels, this is a decrease from 21%, 18.4% and 12.6%, respectively, in 2010 [and] the stakes of fairness and equity are manifest [as well as] the military's ability to defend the nation" (para. 6).

The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the key reasons behind the inordinate underrepresentation of African Americans in senior leadership positions in the U.S. armed forces. A qualitative literature review of peer-reviewed and scholarly resources served to illuminate the multiple barriers prohibiting African American officers from reaching those senior positions. Recommendations to decrease the racial imbalance in the Armed Forces conclude the study.

The study was guided by the following research questions:

1. How does military service affect interracial perceptions and attitudes?

2. What has been the historic role of African Americans in the U.S. armed forces compared to today?

3. What is the current representation of African Americans in top commissioned leadership positions compared to the American population at large?

4. What steps are being taken to address any identified disparities in representation among upper commissioned leadership echelons?

Many of the more recent efforts to address disparities in the representation of African American commissioned officers in the top leadership echelons of the armed forces have serendipitously coincided with the nation's outrage over the murder of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement, and these changes underscore the importance that overcoming racism in the military services has assumed in recent years. In his testimony before a U.S. Congressional committee, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff made it clear that "We must thoughtfully examine our institution and ensure it is a place where all Americans see themselves represented and have equal opportunity to succeed, especially in leadership positions" (as cited in Brook, 2020, para. 6). In sum, African Americans in the U.S. military have faced the double burden of institutionalized racism combined with political turmoil, and these issues are examined further below.

Historical Context of African American Military Service

One of the especially noteworthy aspects of African Americans' early commitment to defending the United States is the fact that they were actually exempted from the U.S. Militia Act of 1792 — which mandated involuntary military service for all males — yet they continued to serve regardless. As Ender et al. (2015) observe, "In the new United States, African-Americans continued to serve in times of war — in particular, in the War of 1812, and the Mexican Wars — but their status as a soldier was second class at best" (p. 231). Despite offers of freedom from the embattled Confederacy, African Americans also played an essential role in winning the Civil War (Ender et al., 2015).

Despite being relegated to a second-class citizen role during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, African Americans continued their military service even when compelled to serve in segregated units. These conditions underscored the need for senior African American military leaders to command those segregated units, including the famed Buffalo Soldiers in the Indian and Spanish-American Wars. Henry O. Flipper consequently became the first African American graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1877, and another 24 Black graduates followed by the end of the century (Ender et al., 2015).

Although race relations remained strained during the first decades of the 20th century, growing numbers of African American men and women came to regard service in the armed forces as a viable path toward greater social equality — views that became especially pronounced following the United States' entry into World War I. Here again, however, despite their honorable and even heroic service, these same men and women were relegated once more to second-class status once the war had been won (Ender et al., 2015).

Things began to change more substantially during and after World War II. According to Ender et al., "World War II facilitated a continued struggle on the part of African-Americans to serve in the military, and they did so with gallantry. That effort propelled them demonstrably forward in the struggle for both military and societal integration" (p. 233). This struggle was resolved by Executive Order No. 9981, promulgated by President Harry S. Truman in 1948, which desegregated military units that would go on to fight in Korea and Vietnam. These contributions to national defense were responsible, at least in part, for the eventual passage of the Civil Rights Act and subsequent federal legislation designed to guarantee African Americans their fundamental constitutional rights.

In what can be regarded as yet another historic turning point, the percentage of Black service members in the armed forces remained consistently high even after the end of conscription and the introduction of the All-Volunteer Force in 1973. Since that time, African American representation in the U.S. armed forces has consistently outpaced their representation in the general American population — a trend that continues to the present day.

Review of Literature

Although the history of the United States is certainly not unique with respect to longstanding institutional practices based on race, this nation does stand apart by virtue of having fought an enormously costly Civil War — in part to end slavery and to eliminate racial disparities. The original U.S. Constitution is largely silent with respect to race; however, the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery and the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed the right to vote without regard to race or color.

In 1948, Executive Order 9981 desegregated the U.S. armed forces, and President Truman expected them to provide equal opportunities to all service members as a result. The text of Executive Order 9981 specifically states in part that "there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin" (Executive Order 9981, 1948). This order, issued three-quarters of a century ago, has not been fully implemented based on the historic levels of African Americans occupying top leadership positions in the U.S. military. Some service branches have been more successful than others in achieving this idealized reality, but racially based obstacles still confront African Americans at every turn in their military careers, irrespective of branch of service.

Some indication of the growing awareness — and corresponding frustrations — can be found in a study by Briscoe (2013), which notes that "Today the Army is striving to maintain the [Truman] vision by recruiting and retaining an organization reflective of the country's diverse population. However, Black officers are underrepresented in the combat arms, specifically in the Infantry, Armor, and Field Artillery branches" (para. 5). Because serving in a combat role in one of these three branches has historically facilitated advancement to senior leadership positions, African Americans face a compounded disadvantage when it comes to gaining access to promotion opportunities. As Briscoe explains, "This underrepresentation can be termed occupational segregation. Blacks' nonparticipation in these career paths decreases the diversity in these branches and makes it difficult for Blacks to attain appropriate representation among general officers, as more than 59% of the Army's generals are selected from the combat arms" (para. 7).

The results of a study by Segal and Thanner (2007) showed that even prior to the most recent dampening effects on promotions for minorities, there had been virtually no progress in improving the representation of Black officers in high-level leadership positions. According to Segal and Thanner (2007), "Since the start of the All-Volunteer Force [AVF] in 1973, African-Americans have served in the U.S. military, especially in the Army, in numbers greater than their percentage of the population. This disproportionate representation has been evident among military women" (p. 48).

As noted above, African American enlistments have tapered off in recent years, accompanied by corresponding increases in Hispanic enlistments. Not surprisingly, this minority group has also experienced many of the same constraints to top military leadership as their African American counterparts. Moreover, Hispanic women have joined the armed forces at a greater rate than males, meaning they constituted a larger percentage of the women serving on active duty than Hispanic men during a period when this minority group is becoming the majority in many parts of the country (Segal & Thanner, 2007).

It is against this backdrop that recent and current initiatives intended to address the longstanding problem of disparate representation of African Americans in top military leadership positions have been implemented — though all such initiatives have faced many of the same constraints to progress (Segal & Thanner, 2007). For example, nearly a quarter-century ago, the U.S. Congress established the Military Leadership Diversity Commission to examine diversity levels in all military branches and identify appropriate strategies for overcoming barriers to parity.

One of the more interesting findings that emerged from this initiative was that each service branch defines "diversity" differently, but many of the Commission's other findings and recommendations were largely rehashes of formerly identified needs. As Jones (2010) points out, even the high-powered Military Leadership Diversity Commission was unable — rather than unwilling — to remedy some of the entrenched problems. Jones (2010) notes that "First, it takes 25 years to advance to the rank of general. But more importantly, many young African-Americans don't view the military as a long-term career goal [and] focus on developing careers in four years that are marketable on the outside" (p. 59).

It is also widely recognized that certain occupations within each service branch offer greater promotion opportunities than others. In some cases, however, African Americans have not been able to gain access to the same career ladders available to white officers. Jones (2010) points out that "There is a strategic path that leads to higher levels of the military in positions that include Air Force pilot; infantry, battle-tested Marine and Army officers; and tactical operations across the board — areas that women and minorities tend not to select" (p. 59).

Nonetheless, the U.S. Department of Defense recognized the need for reform after the creation of the Military Leadership Diversity Commission and began implementing strategies to improve the representation of African Americans in top military leadership. As Jones (2010) emphasizes, "In addition to exploring ways to expose more women and minorities to those fields, Defense is also looking at civilian businesses and organizations for clues about how to help those demographic groups advance" (p. 59).

In their final report, the Military Leadership Diversity Commission outlined three interrelated goals:

1. Establish the foundation for effective diversity leadership with a definition of diversity congruent with the Department of Defense's core values and vision;

2. Develop future leaders who represent the face of America and are able to effectively lead a diverse workforce to maximize mission effectiveness; and

3. Implement policies and practices that will make leaders accountable for instilling diversity leadership as a core competency of the Armed Forces (Lyles, 2011, p. 8).

The core values and vision of the Department of Defense were codified most recently on July 24, 1998, with the publication of its "Human Goals Charter," which states in part:

Our nation was founded on the principle that the individual has infinite dignity and worth. The Department of Defense, which exists to keep the Nation secure and at peace, must always be guided by this principle. In all that we do, we must show respect for the serviceman, the servicewoman, the civilian employee, and family members. The defense of the Nation requires a well-trained force, military and civilian, regular and reserve.

In an effort to realize these core values, the Department of Defense has taken several steps to both increase the available pool of African American candidates for the commissioned officer ranks and adopt innovative practices specifically intended to facilitate their career advancement (Lyles, 2011).

While it is tempting to characterize some of the above-listed ambitious initiatives as overly broad and unfocused, they do provide a useful framework for moving the armed forces toward the long-term goal of demographic parity. One of the more valuable lessons learned from collaboration with the private sector has been the growing recognition of the value of providing young African American officers with a seasoned mentor who can help them avoid the pitfalls of military leadership. A recent case study of an African American captain conducted by Randolph (2018) found that "Mentoring is a developmental relationship where experiences are shared between two people, one with greater experience and one with lesser experience, based on mutual trust and respect" (p. 37).

The Randolph (2018) case study also found that few African American officers are offered mentoring opportunities, and when they do become available, it is typically in an informal fashion rather than being formally administered through the Army Mentoring Program — due in part to a lack of awareness that the program even exists. Randolph recommends that Army decision-makers take into account the multiple "rings" in which military mentoring takes place, as summarized below.

The theoretical ring encompasses experiential learning, organizational design, and management theory. Experiences serve as the key component to the Army's definitions of mentoring, forming the basis for experiential learning theory (ELT) as the theoretical framework, alongside Army organizational design and management theories.

The practitioner ring covers three broad categories: mentoring in theory, in practice, and with military personnel. The philosophy of mentoring has a generally accepted framework encompassing youth, academic, workplace, and reflective phases. Academic mentoring has two corollaries useful in examining the military mentoring relationship: the professor/student relationship and mentoring of minority faculty by white faculty.

The social ring reflects the fact that the military is recruited from the larger society. Three areas may influence how African American Army officers receive mentoring: mentoring diverse groups, the quest for African American mentors, and mentoring African American males. African American men face social stigmas, transitional concerns, and workplace mentoring issues. Generational and diversity components also intersect here, including the potential benefits to minorities of anonymity through e-mentoring.

The military mentoring ring provides a composite look at how mentoring occurs across the services. Although the Navy, Air Force, and Marines have established mandatory mentoring programs, the mentoring of minorities is addressed primarily as a diversity issue in those branches. Only the Army Mentoring Program remains separate and distinct from the Army Diversity Management Program — a structural gap that may impact the recruitment, development, and retention of minority officers.

The Army mentoring ring requires understanding the role of mentoring in the Army's learning and leadership frameworks, and in officer education. The Army Leader Development Model consists of three domains — institutional, operational, and self-development — each characterized by three components: training, education, and experience.

As Jones (2010) concludes, "I think mentoring is a key factor that influences [military] career choices. How you talk to and encourage people to consider some of the critical military occupations. There is work to be done in that regard, and we continue to look at ideas on how to influence that" (p. 60). The fact that the U.S. Army has committed to examining its approach to minority mentoring must be viewed as a positive step, but Randolph (2018) also makes clear that this branch has a long way to go to catch up with some of the other services.

A good example of more advanced mentoring practice can be seen in the efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard, which is focusing on creating a "long-lasting pipeline" of African American officer candidates beginning at the middle and high school levels, encouraging participants to pursue STEM-related coursework. The Coast Guard Academy's diversity affairs director notes the importance of providing participants with the ongoing support they need to succeed. Jones (2010) reports that the 2014 incoming class was the most diverse since 1999, with 16 African Americans out of a class of 290 students — representing 5.5% of the class, compared to African Americans' approximately 12.6% share of the larger American population (American people, 2021).

The Coast Guard concedes that even this progress is modest. Still, the Academy's diversity affairs director notes that the most recent cohort of minority students is better prepared academically than previous classes, having benefited from a comprehensive pre-orientation mentoring program specifically focused on providing future Coast Guard leaders with the "moral support they need as individuals and a group to succeed [because] we're not just trying to change the crayon box [but] want to make sure they're successful once they come through the door" (as cited in Jones, 2010, p. 38). These combined efforts have already demonstrated positive results, with the Coast Guard recently celebrating the promotion of the first African American flag officer to receive three stars as well as its second female vice commandant. Moreover, minority retention rates in the Coast Guard are at unprecedentedly high levels and actually exceed majority retention levels, albeit only slightly for officers; however, representation rates for enlisted ranks tell a different story, with fully 39.9% of the Coast Guard enlisted ranks being filled by minority members and nearly one-third (29.7%) being female (Jones, 2010).

The U.S. Navy also reports increasing success in its efforts to recruit minorities and women. Jones (2010) cited Captain Ken Barrett, head of the Navy's diversity programming, as reporting that "There has been a dramatic improvement with regard to women, who now represent approximately 15.3% of its force. African-Americans and Hispanics represent 8.08% and 6.22% of the officer ranks and 18.26% and 17.21% of enlistment, respectively" (as cited in Jones, 2010, p. 38). Barrett adds that "We have diversity outreach officers in major markets, and we added outreach officers in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and Atlanta. We also have done a lot to network among educators, business leaders, and government officials to get the Navy message out there and access untapped markets" (as cited in Jones, 2010, p. 38).

In other words, the U.S. Navy is taking steps to actively reach out to prospective African Americans who may not have seriously considered a military career. The Navy has also borrowed important guidance from the private sector by ensuring that officer candidates receive the types and levels of mentoring support needed to succeed. Jones (2010) points out that "Although the Navy works to ensure that members of all demographic groups receive the support needed to achieve major milestones and key assignments that lead to faster promotions, the branch also has made a special effort to expose racial and ethnic minorities to service affinity groups through which enlisted men and women can meet and be mentored by senior officers from similar backgrounds" (p. 38).

Finally, the U.S. Army has also implemented a number of new strategies borrowed from the private sector to help eliminate known obstacles to promotion for African Americans, including stopping the practice of including photographs of officers in their personnel files — a measure intended to prevent promotion boards from taking race into account, even unconsciously, during their deliberations. There are also indications that growing numbers of African American officers are selecting combat assignments, which is a proven path to accessing higher-level positions.

In order to develop timely and informed answers to the study's guiding research questions, the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature was coded according to the following key themes:

1. African Americans' long history of military service has been used as a path toward gaining social equality. Shaffer (n.d.) notes that African Americans have been part of the national political struggles of the United States since before independence, even despite the vexed relationship to the ideals of liberty and justice experienced by both enslaved and free Black populations. Ender et al. (2015) reinforce this finding, noting that "Slavery ends in the United States following the American Civil War, where African-Americans made significant military contributions to the North winning the war. Estimates are that 200,000 served and 27,000 died [and] their service showed a propensity to fight for country" (p. 232).

2. The modern military is fundamentally a meritocracy that defies overt racism. Myers (2014) finds that as long as 50 years ago, military and civilian officials expressed growing concerns over the lack of career progression of Black officers, and that people within the Department of Defense worked to raise the number of African Americans attending service academies and ROTC programs at multiracial schools. Jones (2010) likewise reports that the U.S. Air Force was working competitively to attract diverse officer candidates, acknowledging that "competition is keen with corporate America, as well as other services for the same group of highly qualified diverse college graduates" (as cited in Jones, 2010, p. 59).

3. African Americans remain underrepresented in top commissioned leadership positions, but positive changes are being made to address these disparities. Adams (1997) conducted a seminal study of mentoring in the U.S. military, noting that the armed forces are taking lessons from the private sector in their mentoring initiatives. Randolph (2018) finds that "subpar promotion rates to Major for minority and female officers is a systemic problem spanning over the last 40-plus years." Smith (2010) similarly reports that "Blacks (19%) were more likely than Whites (4%) [...] to indicate experiencing at least one evaluation incident (e.g., being rated lower than expected on an evaluation) during their career." Briscoe (2013) argues that the Army must do more than supplement an old system with new initiatives — it requires changing the system and modifying core culture.

4. Military service facilitates and encourages interracial understanding, appreciation, and respect. Bonam and Nas (2018) find that whites, compared to African Americans, displayed less critical historical knowledge, explaining their greater denial of systemic racism. Johnson (2008) finds that midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy viewed mentoring as extremely important and that both career and psychosocial mentor functions were present in the relationships that did form, contributing to positive appraisals and interracial rapport. Bryant (2009) underscores that "African-American officers must proactively seek out mentors of any race. Senior military leaders, regardless of race, must welcome the opportunity to mentor African-American officers."