President's Committee on Civil Rights
The President's Committee on Civil Rights was established by President Harry S. Truman in 1946, following the end of World War II and amid rising racial tensions in the United States. This fifteen-member committee included prominent figures from various sectors, such as business, education, labor, and the African American community, all united by a commitment to civil rights. In its seminal report, "To Secure These Rights," released in 1947, the committee made several significant recommendations aimed at combating discrimination and promoting equality. These included calls for a dedicated civil rights division within the Department of Justice, an antilynching law, and enhanced voting protections.
The committee also advocated for the cessation of federal funding to entities that practiced discrimination and proposed measures to desegregate housing and employment. Truman's administration took further steps by issuing executive orders to integrate the armed forces and eliminate discrimination in federal employment. While the implementation of these recommendations took time, the committee's work played a pivotal role in placing civil rights at the forefront of national policy discussions and set the stage for future reforms in American society.
President's Committee on Civil Rights
Like many White people of his time, US President Harry S. Truman shared the racial attitudes of his Southern ancestors. He attended segregated schools in Missouri and regarded segregation as normal and desirable. He used offensive racial language and once claimed that African Americans belonged in Africa, not America. Yet, when he became president in 1945, Truman rose above his racist heritage and responded to African American demands. As a successful politician, he had learned to work with African American political groups and to understand the necessity of serving all his constituents. He disliked social mixing among people of different races, but he believed that African American people had the right to equality under the law and deserved equal opportunity.
At the end of World War II, racial tension rose as African Americans tried to cement the economic and social gains they had made during the war. Racial violence increased. For example, in February 1946, a South Carolina policeman blinded an African American veteran still in uniform, and in July, two more veterans were killed in Monroe, Georgia. In addition to domestic racial problems, the Cold War was beginning to destroy the wartime alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union. The two superpowers began to divide the world between them and to compete for the allegiance of Asian and African peoples. Truman recognized the negative image presented by American segregation.
On December 5, 1946, Truman issued Executive Order 9008 to create the President’s Committee on Civil Rights and filled the fifteen-member committee with prominent Americans who were sympathetic to civil rights. It was a high-profile committee that included important businesspeople, educators, labor leaders, and members of the African American community. On October 29, 1947, in a document entitled To Secure These Rights, the committee recommended the establishment of a civil rights division in the Department of Justice, a commission on civil rights, and a fair employment practices committee. It urged Congress to strengthen existing civil rights statutes, pass an antilynching law, and provide new protection for voting rights. To move toward desegregation, the committee said, the government must discontinue federal funding to private and public bodies that practiced discrimination, prohibit discrimination in private employment and health services, and seek court action to end restrictive covenants in housing.
These recommendations established the civil rights platform for Truman and his successors. In 1948, Truman issued Executive Order 9980 to forbid discrimination in federal government employment and Executive Order 9981 to integrate the armed forces. Under Truman’s direction, the Justice Department entered amici curiae briefs in court cases to back the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and others in their assaults on the legal edifice that supported segregation. It took many years before the vision expressed in To Secure These Rights started to become reality, but the report moved civil rights to the forefront of the national reform agenda.
Bibliography
Anslover, Nicole L. Harry S. Truman: The Coming of the Cold War. Routledge, 2014.
Geselbracht, Raymond H., editor. The Civil Rights Legacy of Harry S. Truman. Truman State UP, 2007.
Goldfield, David. “Border Men: Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, and Civil Rights.” Journal of Southern History, vol. 80, no. 1, 2014, pp. 7–38.
Kruse, Kevin M., and Stephen Tuck, editors. Fog of War: The Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement. Oxford UP, 2012.
Lawson, Steven F. "Part VI: Creation of the President's Committee on Civil Rights." Truman Library Institute, www.trumanlibraryinstitute.org/civil-rights-symposium-history-6. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.
"Records of the President's Committee on Civil Rights, Record Group 220." Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/federal-record/records-presidents-committee-civil-rights-record-group-220. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.
Roll, David L. Ascent to Power: How Truman Emerged from Roosevelt’s Shadow and Remade the World. Dutton, 2024.
Taylor, Jon E. Freedom to Serve: Truman, Civil Rights, and Executive Order 9981. Routledge, 2013.