Leedell Neyland joined the Navy in January 1941. He was supposed to do four years, but they were going to do six years. He made 21 dollars a month. They went to Norfolk [Annotator’s Note: Norfolk, Virginia]. They had to practice how to do service work. They had to go through the regular detail as well. He had to learn how to swim better. At the time, he was the only person in the group who could type. He was assigned as the company clerk from January through May of that year, then he went to sea. He could not be a yeoman [Annotator’s Note: Yeomen (YN) are the Navy's front office, handling all matters clerical and administrative for ships and personnel] because of his color. He was sent to Galveston, Texas, and then to Iceland. On the second trip there, Neyland got sick. He was sent to the hospital and had to be operated on right away. He was in the hospital for two weeks with an appendectomy. Then he was with a mine laying sweep. They would go wherever they needed to lay mines. His commanding officer was a segregationist in his own mind. On the ship, he decided he wanted to get out of the Navy. He wrote a letter to the Bureau of Navigation and suggested he wanted to get out of the Navy and join the Army. It was against the rules for sailors to write the Bureau of Navigation. His commander told him to stay in the Navy and go to school in Tuskegee [Annotator’s Note: Tuskegee, Alabama] to get a degree in agriculture. The commander told him he would send him to a cooks and bakers school. He went to San Diego [Annotator’s Note: San Diego, California] for the cooks and bakers school. He finished at the top of his class and went on to work for several admirals.

Leedell Neyland was born in Gloster, Mississippi in August 1921. He had seven brothers and one sister. They went to college. They had to deal with segregation all around them. His father had a fourth-grade education and his mother had an eighth-grade education. Neyland went to the university and got in trouble. He met a girl from Natchez, Mississippi. He went to a dance with Walter Barns [Annotator’s Note: an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, and bandleader] performing. He was an up and coming musician. During the dance, a fire broke out. It turned into a terrible fire and burned 209 black people to death. [Annotator’s Note: The Rhythm Club fire, or The Natchez Dance Hall Holocaust, was a fire in a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi on the night of 23 April 1940, which killed 209 people and severely injured many others.] Neyland was fortunate to get out. He was able to avoid the panic of the crowd. His shirt was slightly burned. He made it to a white person’s house and they helped him. He was kicked out of school. He returned home, and he was supposed to go to church. When he went to the post office, he saw a sign for colored boys [Annotator's Note: an ethnic descriptor historically used for Black people in the United States] to join the Navy. He went to New Orleans [Annotator’s Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] and joined the Navy.

Leedell Neyland worked under Captain Miller. They served as escorts in 1942 in the Caribbean Sea. They would pick up ships from Norfolk [Annotator’s Note: Norfolk, Virginia]. In 1942, war broke out in North Africa. They had to go over and sweep mines in Casablanca [Annotator’s Note: Casablanca, Morocco]. They got shot at for a while. They swept mines throughout the area, and then returned to the United States and did another escort duty. They began preparing for D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Admiral Miller would let Neyland come in and read where they were going. They were supposed to go in on 5 June, but it rained that day so it was postponed until the 6th. They stayed there for 20 days. They went in on Utah Beach which led to Cherbourg, France. It was a tough beach. They swept the mines there. They were on the USS Broadbill [Annotators’ Note: USS Broadbill (AM-58)]. They would pull the mines up and someone had to shoot them. The big ships were behind them. They were in mine squadron number seven. Of the 11 ships, one was sunk. Many people died. The black personnel passed up magazines to the white personnel. Neyland told Admiral Miller that he was scared to go down there. He passed him his life jacket and told him if anything happened, to bring the life jacket immediately.

Leedell Neyland got the Legion of Honor Medal [Annotator’s Note: The Legion of Honor is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil.]. When they left there [Annotator’s Note: he is referring Normandy after D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], they went on to sweep mines around Naples [Annotator’s Note: Naples, Italy] and Marseille [Annotator’s Note: Marseille, France]. Neyland told his admiral he did not want to go to the West Coast because his wife was on the East Coast. He went to Oakland, California. He served under Admiral Baker there. He wanted to become a Warrant Officer. He thought he could take the test, but even in California, he could not be an officer because of his color. Neyland could not see himself getting ahead in the Navy. He decided to get out of the Navy. He asked the admiral if he could get an honorable discharge and go home. The admiral let him go home two months early. He went home on 13 December 1946.

Leedell Neyland returned home and he could not get into the school where he wanted to. He had to wait until the next year. He left the Navy in good condition. He worked for admirals most of the time. He and his wife took a trip when he returned. They decided to go to school at home. He worked at a cafe. He went to Norfolk Junior College [Annotator’s Note: in Norfolk, Virginia], then Virginia State University, and then on to New York State University. Neyland went overtime in the Navy. He got a job so his wife could go to school. After he got his master’s degree, she got her GED [Annotator’s Note: General Educational Development test, equivalent to a high school diploma]. She went on to get her master’s and a doctorate degree. Neyland was the first black man to get a teacher’s grant out of St. Louis [Annotator’s Note: St. Louis, Missouri]. He thought it was only for white people. He got a letter from them asking him to meet them at a hotel in Shreveport [Annotator’s Note: Shreveport, Louisiana]. Neyland was told he could not go into that hotel, so he asked to see the manager. The manager took him to a nice room. Neyland met the man and got into the program and got his degree. He went to a college in charge of black education in Louisiana. He was a professor at several universities. At Florida A&M [Annotator’s Note: Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Florida], he decided he wanted to write history. He wrote the history of the university. They published the book [Annotator’s Note: entitled Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University: A Centennial History, published in 1987] through the University of Florida Press. They would write the history and make it into a sociological book.

Leedell Neyland finished his doctorate degree at NYU [Annotator’s Note: New York University in New York City, New York] in February 1959. This is where he decided to write books. He wrote a history of agriculture and home economics in African-American universities. Tuskegee [Annotator’s Note: Tuskegee University, formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, in Tuskegee, Alabama] acted like a land grant school. He wrote the history of those schools for the federal government. At Florida [Annotator’s Note: Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Florida], he was in charge of academic courses for the Naval ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps]. He outlined the courses they could take. He was asked about going to a reunion for the Navy. He spoke to the naval group. He joined the Navy to get away from segregation in Mississippi. They could not drive their cars across the tracks. He used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment]. He was not allowed to go to the University of Virginia, but they paid his way to go to New York.

Leedell Neyland thinks sweeping for mines was his most memorable moment of the war. They swept the mines, and they knew if their ship was hit. The war changed his life because it taught him to read. He thought it would mean something to get out and work. He worked at a restaurant. The boss put the white man in charge and then he had to get checked every night before he left to make sure he was not stealing. He could not see himself growing up in the Navy [Annotator’s Note: he is referring to the segregation rules]. [Annotator’s Note: Neyland talks about his children]. He made it all the way from Mississippi to New York University. This is inspiring to many young people.

Leedell Neyland got his doctorate degree. He served as Vice President of Academics at Florida A&M [Annotator’s Note: Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Florida]. He wrote several books. Many people do not know what the conditions were like in Mississippi at this time [Annotator’s Note: he is referring to segregation]. He has a daughter and she was the only female black pediatrician in the state. He has a son who is a lawyer. [Annotator’s Note: Neyland talks about his children and grandchildren.]