Marching Forward
"I am asking for equality of opportunity for all human beings...When the mob gangs can take four people out and shoot them in the back, and everybody in the [surrounding] country is acquainted with who did the shooting and nothing is done about it, that country is in a pretty bad fix from the law enforcement standpoint."
~ President Harry S. Truman, 1948
~ President Harry S. Truman, 1948
As World War II ended and veterans returned home, they demanded respect for their armed force service and civil rights. In July 1946, patriotism and hate collided in Georgia resulting in the deaths of two Negro men and their wives. President Truman was horrified to learn one man was a recently returned war veteran. When Congress wouldn't pass new civil rights legislation, Truman issued Executive Order 9981.
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Letter to Ernest W. Roberts (Truman Library)
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"There are times when the differences between what we preach about civil rights and what we practice is shockingly illustrated by individual outrages."
~ To Secure These Rights, The Report of the President's Committee on Civil Rights, December 5, 1946
The efforts of the Montford Point Marines and Truman's Executive Order inspired many African Americans to enlist. By the end of the Korean War, there were no longer segregated units, but racial prejudice still lingered.
"Institutional (or systemic) racism and racist social custom was endemic to the promotion process based on the reality that much of the white junior and senior office corps of World War II and the Korean War veterans, who still championed segregation policies would ultimately be the future commanders of African American officers during the Vietnam era. Furthermore, these men would sit on promotion boards that would determine if blacks were promoted or not."
~ Isaac Hampton, Historian, 1988
~ Isaac Hampton, Historian, 1988