In a June 22, 1911 love letter to his future wife, Bess Wallace, 27 year old Truman, serving as a corporal in the Missouri National Guard, penned a letter to his future wife, Bess Wallace.
“I think one man is just as good as another so long as he’s honest and decent and not a nigger or a Chinaman…”
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Truman's transformation, from farm boy raised by Confederate sympathizers to U.S. president who signed the order to desegregate the armed forces is vividly traceable in his letters and memoirs.
“ I am strongly of the opinion that negros (sic) ought to be in Africa, yellow men in Asia and white men in Europe and America.” Truman wrote in the same 1911 letter to his future wife.
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From the same letter:
“Uncle Will says that the Lord made a white man from dust, a nigger from mud, and then threw what was left and it came down a Chinaman. He does hate Chinese and Japs. So do I. It is race prejudice I guess. But I am strongly of the opinion that negroes ought to be in Africa, yellow men in Asia, and white men in Europe and America.”
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During Truman's tenure as a U.S. Senator, he composed a letter to his daughter, Margaret, dated April 7, 1937. In the letter, he recounted a dinner at the White House with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, unfortunately using a derogatory name to refer to the black waitstaff.
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“They gave a real good meal at the taxpayers[’] expense — tomato soup, fillet of flounder, roast turkey, string beans, pineapple salad, chocolate ice cream and cake, candy and little cafe noir afterwards.”
“All these things were in courses, deftly placed and removed by an army of coons..”
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On August 4, 1939, two years later, Truman wrote to his wife from Washington.
“Well this is nigger picnic day. But they don’t have ’em like they did in days past. I remember once going to Washington Park with our washwoman to a Fourth of August celebration. I’ll never forget it. Had chicken and catfish fried in corn meal and was it good!”
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Truman's beliefs were deeply influenced by his upbringing in Missouri. The state had a troubling history, with 60 recorded cases of Black American lynchings between 1877 and 1950, ranking it second-highest among states outside the Deep South during that period.
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Growing up, Truman was exposed to a home environment that openly disdained abolitionism, Reconstruction, and even President Abraham Lincoln. He absorbed these sentiments from an early age, learning them at his mother's side.
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As a result, Truman embraced a strong belief in white supremacy. When he secured the position of FDR’s running mate in the 1944 DNC with help from Southerners, AL Gov Chauncey Sparks proudly celebrated their success, Sparks bellowed:
“The South has won a substantial victory. … In the matter of race relations Senator Truman told me he is the son of an unreconstructed rebel mother.”
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However, various mediating forces began to have an impact on Truman. His service as an officer in World War I and his post-war business interactions with a Jewish partner played a role in broadening his perspectives. As 1940 approached and he campaigned for re-election to the US Senate, it became evident that his viewpoint had matured.
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In a speech in Sedalia, Missouri, he said:
“I believe in the brotherhood of man, not merely the brotherhood of white men, but the brotherhood of all men before law. I believe in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. In giving the Negroes the rights which are theirs, we are only acting in accord with our own ideals of a true democracy.”
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In 1940, Black-Americans constituted nearly 10 percent of the entire U.S. population, amounting to 12.6 million people out of a total of 131 million. During World War II, the Army emerged as the nation's largest employer of minorities.
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Out of the 2.5 million Black-American males who registered for the draft by December 31, 1945, more than one million were inducted into the armed forces. Additionally, numerous Black women volunteered and served in all branches of the military and across various theaters of operations during the war.
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To address complaints about discrimination against Black Americans at home during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 in June 1941. The order aimed to ensure Black Americans' acceptance into job-training programs in defense plants, prohibit discrimination by defense contractors, and establish a Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC).
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Throughout history, Black Americans had served in the U.S. military, but their largest deployment occurred during World War II.
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By December 31, 1945, over 2.5 million Black Americans had registered for the military draft, and with many Black American women volunteering, the U.S. Armed Forces became the foremost employer of Black people.
Following Roosevelt's passing on April 12, 1945, now President Truman assumed responsibility for concluding World War II and allowed Congress to terminate the FEPC.
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By the war's end, approximately 900,000 Black Americans had served in various military branches and the Army Nurse Corps. Upon returning home, these Black WWII veterans were eligible for benefits like a free college education under the GI Bill of 1944, but pervasive discrimination hindered their access to these benefits.
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Also upon their return, Black veterans encountered violence in America. In 1946, an appalling incident occurred in Georgia, where a mob shot and killed 2 Black men and their wives, with no one brought to trial for the crime. In South Carolina, police subjected Army Sergeant Isaac Woodard to a brutal beating with night sticks after pulling him from a bus, leaving him permanently blind.
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Similar to his predecessor Abraham Lincoln, Truman believed in white supremacy and made racist remarks to those close to him. Nevertheless, he was a shrewd politician who recognized the significance of the Black vote for his political success.
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He anlso expressed sympathy towards Black soldiers who faced mistreatment upon their return from World War II.
“My stomach turned over when I learned that Negro soldiers, just back from overseas, were being dumped out of army trucks in Mississippi and beaten.”
“Whatever my inclinations as a native of Missouri might have been, as president I know this is bad. I shall fight to end evils like this.”
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Back in 1940, during his time as a U.S. Senator, Truman had addressed the National Colored Democratic Association, expressing,.
"The Negroes' flag is our flag, and he stands ready, just as we do, to defend it against all foes from within and without."
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Further embracing civil rights, in late 1946, Truman took decisive action by establishing "The President's Committee on Civil Rights."
He instructed its members:
“I want our Bill of Rights implemented in fact. We have been trying to do this for 150 years. We’re making progress, but we’re not making progress fast enough.”
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Then, on February 2, 1948, Truman presented a 10-point civil rights proposal to Congress. The plan not only included the prohibition of lynching but also encompassed granting D.C. home rule, extending voting rights to District residents in presidential elections, banning discrimination in interstate transportation facilities, and establishing a commission to safeguard voting rights.
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Truman declared that lynching was a crime "against which I cannot speak too strongly ... So long as one person walks in fear of lynching, we shall not have achieved equal justice under the law."
He expressed his hope for D.C. to become "a true symbol of American freedom and democracy for our own people, and for the people of the world."
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Have
Altogether, Truman demonstrated a progressive vision that outpaced his time. Washingtonians had to wait until 1964 to vote in presidential elections, and achieving home rule took an additional 9 years. Moreover, it was not until 2022 that the federal government passed an anti-lynching law, after more than a century of unsuccessful attempts.
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In 1947, Truman was the first American president to address the NAACP. During his speech at the Lincoln Memorial, Truman stated:
“It is my deep conviction that we have reached a turning point in the long history of our country’s efforts to guarantee a freedom and equality to all our citizens …when I say all Americans – I mean all Americans!
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On February 2, 1948, President Truman took a bold political risk by delivering a daring civil rights speech to a joint session of Congress. Drawing from the committee's findings, he urged Congress to support a comprehensive civil rights package. This package encompassed anti- lynching, safeguards for voting rights, & the establishment of a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission.
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Truman's proposals faced staunch opposition in Congress and led to the fracturing of the Democratic Party just before the 1948 presidential election. Despite the challenges, Truman remained resolute in his civil rights plan, but it encountered resistance from a group of Southern Democrats led by Senator Richard Russell of Georgia.
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The Southerners threatened to filibuster any civil rights measure that reached the Senate, with Senator James O. Eastland of MS even suggesting that the Solid South withhold its electoral votes & elect a Southerner.
In response to the immediate threat of a filibuster, Truman decided to take executive action on civil rights, using his executive powers to push forward his agenda.
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Conservative Southern Democrats from South Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama protested against the party's civil rights plank and walked out of the 1948 Democratic National Convention. This led to the defection of the Dixiecrats, who backed segregationist South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond for president, winning four Southern states.
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Furthermore, Truman faced a challenge from the left, as Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace, whom Truman had replaced as Roosevelt's vice president, urged the president to act more swiftly on civil rights.
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Despite these challenges, Truman's advisors convinced him that a winning coalition included Black voters, whose leaders viewed the integration of the armed forces as a crucial election issue. Months before the election, 20 Black organizations, including the NAACP and the Urban League, issued a "Declaration of Negro Voters" that highlighted desegregation of the armed forces.
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Truman strengthened the civil rights division, making significant strides in appointing the first Black-American judge to the Federal bench and filling various high-ranking administration positions with other talented Black Americans.
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On March 22, 1948, Truman held a meeting with Black leaders to address segregation. A. Phillip Randolph, a prominent union organizer and civil rights leader, conveyed to the president,
“I can tell you the mood among Negroes of this country is that they will never bear arms again until all forms of bias and discrimination are abolished."
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At a hearing nine days later before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Randolph said,
“I personally will advise Negroes to refuse to fight as slaves for a democracy they cannot possess and cannot enjoy.”
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And in a renowned case supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, Winfrid Lynn, a Black landscape gardener from New York, faced imprisonment after he informed his local draft board of his refusal to serve in a segregated Armed Forces.
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“Gentlemen: I am in receipt of my draft-reclassification notice. Please be informed that I am ready to serve in any unit of the armed forces of my country which is not segregated by race. Unless I am assured that I can serve in a mixed regiment and that I will not be compelled to serve in a unit undemocratically selected as a Negro group, I will refuse to report for induction. “
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Also, after witnessing racism in the service, Grant Reynolds resigned from his commission as a WWII chaplain and teamed up with activist A. Philip Randolph to co-chair the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service and Training.
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Through letter-writing and telegrams, protest rallies and hearings, and the threat of a nationwide draft resistance campaign, the Committee collaborated with groups like the Committee to End Segregation in the Armed Forces and the League for Non-Violent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation to demand equal treatment for Black people in the United States Armed Forces.
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In June 1948, A. Philip Randolph conveyed to President Truman that unless he issued an executive order ending segregation in the armed forces, Black Americans would resist the draft.
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Finally, under pressure from civil rights leaders, Truman signed Executive Order 9981, creating the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Forces, commonly known as the Fahy Committee, to oversee the process and issue the executive orders to desegregate the military and the federal workforce.
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"The two orders were expected to have a thunderbolt effect on the already highly charged political situation in the Deep South," reported the New York Times in a front-page story.
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In the third and final thread on the desegregation of the American armed forces, we will look at the reaction from the military branches and wrap up final thoughts.
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Resources
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/online-collections/desegregation-of-armed-forces
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/executive-order-9981.htm
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-9981
https://www.history.com/news/harry-truman-executive-order-9981-desegration-military-1948
https://www.trumanlibraryinstitute.org/historic-speeches-naacp/
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/20/special-message-congress-civil-rights
https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/history-lynching-america
https://www.legion.org/magazine/258191/fit-fight
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Books
Geselbracht, Raymond H., ed. "The Civil Rights Legacy of Harry S. Truman." Truman State University Press, July 1, 2007.
James Jr., Rawn. The Double V: How Wars, Protest, and Harry Truman Desegregated America's Military. Bloomsbury Press, Reprint edition, March 25, 2014.
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@Deglassco - That is another extraordinary & informative thread. From White Supremacist "son of Dixie" sympathies to an early advocate of Civil Rights that almost split the Democratic Party ... I wonder what made him mellow & perform a complete 180? Maybe it was simply moral or religious conviction that persuaded him to do the right thing? 🤔
There were a few incidents in WW2, in Australia & UK, that shocked the Allied nations in the American treatment of its black soldiers.
@Deglassco - (2.) I wondered if the desegregation of the U.S. Armed Services, more than a decade before it happened in civil society was encouraged by the Allied scorn & appalled reaction of U.S. treatment of its black soldiers.
For example, the U.S. sought to maintain segregation on British soil during the war & it was jarring to witness, especially when British (white) ladies began to fraternize with black troops who were often polite and charismatic.
@Deglassco - It reminds me of another "Son of the South" Lyndon Johnson and how HUGE it may have been for him personally to sign the Civil Rights Act/Voting Rights Act in the 1960s.
There is a scene in the film "Selma" when LBJ confronts Governor George Wallace about the path that could be taken in Democratic politics. There's a road you shouldn't take, and the road you must if the future is to be better than the past.
Thank you.
Feet of clay shambling and stumbling forward.
Would love to read similar for LBJ.
Dr. D. Elisabeth Glassco
Cogito-Ergo-Sum
Lennie
Doug Bostrom
Iron Curtain (Chiptunes)
Grandpa Don