Vietnam veteran Thomas Carroll faced two fights: one for his country and one for civil rights. Serving during this era, he grappled with fighting for freedoms abroad while freedom wasn’t fully available at home. Like many Black service members, his experience included resisting injustices that followed him and the Black community at large.
Carroll enlisted in the Navy in 1964, studying avionics and aviation firefighting in Memphis, Tennessee. Traveling with a White-passing Navy recruit revealed the contrast in treatment.
“We took a cab to the YMCA. They gave him a room, but told me they didn’t have any,” recalls Carroll.
“The cab driver waited for me, knowing how things might go, and drove me to the Abe Scharff branch that was inclusive to Blacks.”
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This incident foreshadowed the coming situations that underscored the irony of being a Black man serving as a sailor in a country that often refused to serve Black men.
“In June, the leader over the barracks asked me how I would like to go to Mississippi, and I told him I’m as far south as I want to get,” Carroll commented.
“The next thing I know I have orders posted to go to Mississippi with the search party for the missing civil rights workers.”
Over 400 sailors, including Carroll—the only African American on his bus—searched for Cheney, Goodman, and Schwerner, activists working to get citizens to vote and to address members at a Black church that had been burned. It would later be found that they were murdered by the Klu Klux Klan.
This search for victims of hatred was only punctuated by the discrimination Carroll faced in town, confronted by “Whites Only” signs at restaurants.
“In Big Spring, Texas, I went to grab a bite. The waitress said very politely, ‘I’m sorry sir, we appreciate your service but can’t serve you here. If you go around to the back door, we can.’ I had my full uniform on. I don’t think they appreciated anything.”
Malcolm X’s assassination fueled tensions. Carroll heard a White sailor say he was glad Malcolm was dead, which led to internal conflicts. Despite this, Carroll found camaraderie with diverse sailors and civil rights activists alike, spending time off-base with those involved in Operation Push and other initiatives.
When the orders came to head to Vietnam, they made stops in Yokosuka, Japan, and Singapore, and participated in missions, including one involving President Lyndon B. Johnson’s helicopter. All the while, Carroll would protest, including to commanding officers, about the rights of African Americans.
“I told the captain that my people were slaves. So, you all should be honored that I’m even celebrating the 4th of July in the first place,” Carroll recalled.
This approach would often lead Carroll to time in the brig. He retells, “They put you through so much physical training in the brig, I could run three or four miles with no problem.”
When faced with setbacks, it always motivated him to prove others wrong and make the most of the situation.
While in the Navy, music became a source of peace. Carroll picked up a flugelhorn in Hong Kong and had his first gig there.
Carroll stated, “The ship’s jazz band would jam, and we ended up playing gigs and recording sessions back home.”
Eventually, Carroll joined Joe Houston’s band, playing alongside legends like Big Joe Turner. He recorded with musicians from Clay Hammond to Sonny Padilla, and music carried him from Europe to the U.S., performing with bands ranging from Iron Horse to the New Orleans Jazz Band.
Thomas Carroll’s experience as a Black Vietnam veteran reflects resilience and a fight for dignity both abroad and at home. Confronting discrimination within the very country he served, Carroll turned adversity into motivation.
