In the final days of the 1948 election, President Harry S. Truman made an historic campaign appearance in Harlem, becoming the first U.S. president to visit the symbolic capital of Black America. The invitation came from Anna Arnold Hedgeman, a Black American political operative who led his campaign's efforts to connect with the Black community.

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Truman's victory in the race was secured by a narrow margin nationwide, partly due to the support from the Black electorate and Hedgeman's efforts. However, his civil rights program faced significant obstacles and failed to gain traction. To effect change, Truman had to resort to executive orders, cajoling, and arm-twisting from that point onward.

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After issuing Executive Order 9981 to desegregate the armed forces, Truman began the hard work. To achieve full integration, Truman needed cooperation from the military's four branches.

In early 1949, he emphasized his desire for collaboration, stating, "I want the job done... and I want it done in a way so that everyone will be happy to cooperate to get it done."

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Citing concerns about national security and the potential impact on enlistments, reenlistments, and soldier morale. Kenneth Royall, the Secretary of the Army, asserted:

"The Army is not an instrument for social evolution."

Truman, steadfast in his commitment to full desegregation, forced Royall into retirement after he refused to comply with the order.

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Gen. Omar Bradley, the Army chief of staff, stated, "The Army is not out to make any social reforms. The Army will put men of different races in different companies. It will change that policy when the nation as a whole changes it."

As the Army resisted, Truman's efforts could not take full effect immediately, and the implementation rolled out uneven across the services.

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By March of 1950, the U.S. Army tentatively agreed to integration across the entire service. In 1950, the Army abolished the enlistment quota on Black Americans, which had originally limited Black enlistment to 10 percent, and also agreed that all jobs within the Army would be opened based on qualifications, not race.

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Beginning in September 1950, there were some limited experiments in integration within the Army. Black tank commanders, gunners, gun loaders, and drivers started serving with the 89th Medium Tank Battalion, while Black infantrymen were integrated into the 27th and 35th regiments of the 25th Division.

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The demand for manpower also fueled a stronger push for integration from politicians in Washington, who increasingly viewed the Army's segregation as inefficient and costly. General Douglass MacArthur rebuffed such demands, arguing that such drastic changes during wartime were impractical. However, his dismissal by Truman in April 1951 for insubordination removed the final obstacle to integration.

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His successor, Lt. Gen. Matthew Ridgway, viewed segregation as "wholly inefficient" for military effectiveness and deemed it "both un-American and un-Christian." He promptly disbanded all-Black units and reassigned their men.

While Black troops supported integration, they were disheartened that only their divisions were disbanded, with all Black soldiers assigned to previously all-white units.

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The historic all-Black regiments created after the Civil War—the famed Buffalo Soldier units—suffered deactivation, with the all-Black 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments retired in late 1950 and the 25th Infantry Regiment broken up into battalions before being inactivated.

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Finally, in October 1951, the last of the all-Black units, the 24th Infantry Regiment, was disbanded, and its members were reassigned. The decision to retire the historic all-Black regiments instead of integrating them was seen as a final insult by Black American soldiers. They contested the Army's rationale, disputing claims of incompetence on the battlefield.

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Curtis Bolton, a former member of the 24th Infantry Regiment and a prisoner of war for three years, expressed,

“I know that we fought as well as any other unit did, and the information has been distorted and stories too that are not true... I would like for the records to reveal and tell the true story of the 24th."

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Meanwhile, W. Stuart Symington, the first Secretary of the Air Force, wholeheartedly supported President Truman's initiative, leading to the Air Force becoming the first fully integrated branch of the military. The Air Force made remarkable progress, with the number of integrated units doubling between June and August 1949, as reported by December of the same year.

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