Miki101

Thanks for the note Trev, I will keep you updated on the book. It looks like it will come out late next year. In regards to your question, let me go into my files because there was one National Executive who really pushed the integration agenda, although integration meant having black troops involved in the program.

Thanks Trev... As I was saying, James E. West was very much opposed to the exclusion of black boys in his vision of Scouting. Although he was a part of a segregated America in the 1910's, he was rather visionary about the whole thing. Of the big players (Seton, Beard, BP)West was the most progressive. With regard to Seton, he issued a diatribe to West in regard to his opposition to "gum chewing" and how it was a horrid habit among black Americans and his oppostion to "the gum trust" advertising in Boys' Life Magazine. Beard, on the other hand, was brought up with a Progressive mind in the Midwest was known for his prayer as a youth in which (I paraphrase) "God save all of the black children." B-P, unfortunately or not, had been accused by various historians of starving the African natives in Mafeking during the 1899 - 1900 siege and probably held colonial attitudes towards them, which was entirely in character for an English gentleman at the time. Yet it was West who put into play the inclusionary national policy of the BSA towards boys of color in the 1910's, which took a great deal of guts because he almost lost the entire Southern region from Scouting due to the powerful KKK. Yet, his tact prevailed and black scouts were put into their own troops to thrive on their own...just like any other white unit. Since your query dealt with troops in the 1960's, each unit makes their own rules and uses natioal as a general guideline, therefore, segregation was in NO WAY a national BSA policy.

(Let's try this post again, it did not all get there the first time) Actually, if you really want to get specific, the first Chief Scout Executive, James E. West, was quite against racism against black scouts all the way back in the 1910's. He was the one who put forth the official BSA policy to include all black boys as needing scouting and should not be excluded. The problem was that there was segregation of black scouts in the South put forth by the powerf

Actually, if you really want to get specific, the first Chief Scout Executive, James E. West, was quite against racism against black scouts all the way back in the 1910's. He was the one who put forth the official BSA policy to include all black boys as needing scouting and should not be excluded. The problem was that there was segregation of black scouts in the South put forth by the powerful KKK and West did not want to lose the entire region by ramming his policy down the th

Greetings Pounder, I am curious...what specific "revisionists" do you refer and what do they say about BP and Boyce that's gettin' your dander up? Could it be that they have re-examined the information and have simply come up with other conclusions? miki