Minuteman Minute | 231st Transportation Truck Battalion

When segregated National Guard units were called to serve in Korea, they answered. When they returned home, it was past time to desegregate.

Hi, I’m Will Roulett, director of the National Guard Memorial Museum here in D.C., and this is your Minuteman Minute! These pictures are of the Truckers’ Cathedral in Korea, which was built by the 231st Transportation Truck Battalion as a place of worship for all races and creeds. The 231st was the only Maryland National Guard unit activated to support the Korean War. It was also the first National Guard unit in Korea, from any state, when it arrived in 1951. Baltimore’s African American community organized the unit in 1879, and it was inducted into the Maryland National Guard in 1882 as the “Monumental City Guards.” The 231st desegregated when white soldiers transferred into the unit in Korea, fulfilling President Harry S. Truman’s 1948 order to desegregate the army. Upon returning to Maryland in 1955, the 231st faced a return to segregation. It was not until the adjutant general was threatened with the loss of federal funds that the unit was permanently desegregated. Come see this – and a whole lot more – at the National Guard Memorial Museum. I’m Will Roulett, and that’s been your Minuteman Minute, brought to you by the National Guard Educational Foundation.