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James Sedalia Peters II served in the Navy at the Great Lakes Training Center as a specialist teacher in psychology. Peters was born in Ashdown, Arkansas. After his application for conscientious objector status was rejected, he enlisted in the Navy in 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was then sent to the Great Lakes Training Center and then to Camp Robert Smalls for boot camp. After that he entered Class "A" School and became a specialist teacher in psychology. He spent three years at the Great Lakes Training Center. After the war, Peters founded the WWII Black Navy Veterans of Great Lakes. The collection contains a speech Peters gave to a convention of the organization, which deals with the plight of African Americans. The collection also includes a copy of his thesis. It discusses the psychological effects of African Americans' migration from the South to Hartford, Connecticut, because of the national defense boom in 1941. The collection includes his published book.