Robert Smalls Photo from the US Naval Historical Center

The Champ's Wife: Marva Louis visits recruits at Camp Robert Smalls

Semaphore training at Camp Robert Smalls

The men of the Mason began their miltary service like any other anyone else by going to boot camp. They were sent to a new facility, Camp Robert Smalls at Great Lakes, Illinois.

The camp's name was unique. Robert Smalls was a hero of the American Civil War. He had commandeered a Confedrate freighter and navigated it skillfully to the North. Smalls later went on to serve five terms in the united States Congress.

But Camp Robert Smalls had another meaning, too. It was completely segregated and was separated from the main base by railroad tracks. It was a special disappointment for recruits from the South to find Jim Crow was waiting for them in Great Lakes, Illinois.

There were negative experiences with white sailors at the camp. The only black sailors these men had ever seen were stewards and they either took time to accept or didn't want to accept these men as their equals.

The future Mason crewmembers were much more comfortable in Chicago, just twenty miles away. Here they could go to movies and shows to see performers like Lena Horne. Joe Louis' wife Marva Louis even visited Camp Smalls.

And in the midst of all this, these African American men were learning the skills that would help them become rated sailors and technical experts, proving the segregationists and much of the Navy wrong along the way.

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
Lena Horne

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