Dissertation Title:
Militarizing Civil Rights: The Institutionalization of Equal Opportunity in the U.S. Armed Forces, 1966–1976

Skyler D. Gordon is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History with a certificate in African American Studies. He specializes in modern American history with a focus on militarization and the U.S. military, African American political culture, and the evolutions of race and racism. His dissertation, “Racial Equality or Military Effectiveness? The Institutionalization of Equal Opportunity in the U.S. Armed Forces, 1966-1976” examines the emergence of “equal opportunity” as a concept and set of policies within the U.S. military in response to the civil rights movement and against the backdrop of the U.S. war in Vietnam. “Racial Equality or Military Effectiveness” considers how Department of Defense officials, military officers and enlistees, congress-members, and civil rights activists negotiated the dual needs of anti-discrimination and “military effectiveness,” the former assumed either to improve or jeopardize the latter. Before coming to Princeton, Skyler received a B.A. in History and Classical Studies from Vanderbilt University.