(Gerald Waller/Stars and Stripes)

Kitzingen, Germany, Jan. 13, 1948: Lt. Gen. Clarence R. Huebner talks to one of the soldier-students — Pfc. Henry Spencer — in one of the classrooms at the Kitzingen Basic Training Center for Black troops. The center — the Army’s only experimental school of its kind — expected to reach full operation by May 1 and eventually planned to train every Black soldier in U.S. European Command, as well as any arriving as replacements.

The U.S. Armed Forces were still segregated in January 1948. President Harry Truman’s executive order 9981 abolishing discrimination in the armed services “on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin,” which led to the end of segregation in the services, was issued July 26, 1948. 

Read the article and see additional photos of Huebner’s visit here.