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MATT2c Reliford Fields
Reliford “Peanut” Fields was born April 4, 1918, in Havana, Florida, to Jessie Fields and and Mary Watkins Fields.
The 1920 Census said both parents were laborers at a tobacco factory in Quincy, a town of 3,000. As a child, Reliford sold peanuts all over town.
He attended Stevens High School through 1935, completing 7th grade.
He gave up peanut sales to work at a drug store on the town square before joining the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC was a Depression-era federal jobs program for young men. He served in Alabama and was discharged in the fall of 1937.
Mr. Fields then worked for the North Florida Experiment Station before he applied to the Navy in the fall of 1939. It isn’t clear when he father died, but the son’s application said he was dead.
Mr. Fields officially enlisted on Oct. 12, 1939. He was a mess attendant second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
Mr. Fields was a messman because as an African-American that was the only branch open to him in the segregated Navy. Messmen cooked, cleaned, and performed other services. The branch accepted men who were black, Filipino or Guamanian. They could advance to become a steward or cook for officers but that was the limit.
Sources: Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; The Gadsden County (Florida) Times; U.S. Department of Defense. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.