Executive Order 9981

1948 order by President Truman

Executive Order 9981

Executive Order 9981 was an executive order issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman. It abolished discrimination "on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin" in the United States Armed Forces. The Order led to the re-integration of the services during the Korean War (1950–1953).[1] It was a crucial event in the post-World War II civil rights movement and a major achievement of Truman's presidency.[2][3]

For Truman, Executive Order 9981 was inspired, in part, by an attack on Isaac Woodard who was an American soldier and African American World War II veteran. On February 12, 1946, hours after being honorably discharged from the United States Army, he was attacked while still in uniform by South Carolina police as he was taking a bus home. The attack left Woodard completely and permanently blind. President Harry S. Truman ordered a federal investigation. Truman also established the President's Committee on Civil Rights, whose report, To Secure These Rights, condemned the state of civil rights in the nation and recommended actions to correct these failures. He then made an historic speech to the NAACP and the nation in June 1947 in which he described civil rights as a moral imperative, submitted a comprehensive civil rights bill to Congress in February 1948, and issued Executive Orders 9980 and 9981 on July 26, 1948, desegregating the armed forces and promoting anti-discrimination throughout the federal government.

## Before Executive Order 9981

[edit]

The Chicago Defender announcing Executive Order 9981

Black Americans in the military worked under different rules that delayed their entry into combat. They had to wait four years before they could begin combat training while a white American would begin training within months of being qualified. The Air Corps was deliberately delaying the training of African Americans even though it needed more manpower (Survey and Recommendations[4]). The Women's Army Corps (WAC) reenlistment program was open to black women, but overseas assignments were not.[5]

Black soldiers who were stationed in Britain during World War II learned that the US military attempted to impose Jim Crow segregation on them even though Britain did not practice the racism which was practiced in the US. According to author Anthony Burgess, when pub owners in Bamber Bridge were told to segregate their facilities by the US military, they installed signs that read "Black Troops Only". One soldier commented: "One thing I noticed here and which I don't like is the fact that the English don't draw any color line. The English must be pretty ignorant. I can't see how a white girl could associate with a negro."[6]

In a 1945 survey which was conducted among 250 white officers and sergeants who had a black platoon assigned to their company, the following results were collected: 77% of both officers and sergeants said that they had become more favorable towards black soldiers after a black platoon was assigned to their company (no cases were found in which someone said that their attitude towards blacks had turned less favorable), 84% of officers and 81% of sergeants thought that the black soldiers had performed very well in combat, only 5% of officers and only 4% of sergeants thought that black infantry soldiers were not as good as white infantry soldiers, and 73% of officers and 60% of sergeants thought that black soldiers and white soldiers got along very well when they were together.[7] According to this particular survey, there were no reasonable grounds for racial segregation in the armed forces.

## Attempts to end discrimination

[edit]

World War II veteran Spencer Moore addresses the audience in the Capitol Rotunda, Washington, D.C., at an event marking the 60th anniversary of the integration of the U.S. Armed Forces (July 23, 2008).

World War II veterans talk with audience members in the Capitol Rotunda at an event marking the 60th anniversary of Executive Order 9981 (July 23, 2008).

In 1947, civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph, along with colleague Grant Reynolds, renewed efforts to end discrimination in the military, forming the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service and Training, later renamed the League for Non-Violent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation.[8] Truman's Order expanded on Executive Order 8802 by establishing equality of treatment and opportunity in the military for people of all races, religions, or national origins.

The order:

> It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale.

The order also established a committee to investigate and make recommendations to the civilian leadership of the military to implement the policy.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Omar Bradley disliked the order, commenting that “[t]he Army is not out to make any social reforms." Bradley was forced by president Truman to issue a public apology.[9]

The order eliminated Montford Point as a segregated Marine boot camp. It became a satellite facility of Camp Lejeune.[10]

Most of the actual enforcement of the order was accomplished by President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration (1953–1961), including the desegregation of military schools, hospitals, and bases. The last of the all-black units in the United States military was abolished in September 1954.[11]

Kenneth Claiborne Royall, Secretary of the Army since 1947, was forced into retirement in April 1949 for continuing to refuse to desegregate the army nearly a year after President Truman's Order.[12]

Fifteen years after Truman's order, on July 26, 1963, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara issued Directive 5120.36 encouraging military commanders to employ their financial resources against facilities used by soldiers or their families that discriminated based upon sex or race.[13]

In contravention to Truman's executive order, the United States complied[when?] with a non-public request from the Icelandic government not to station black soldiers on the US base in Keflavík, Iceland. The United States complied with the Icelandic request until the 1970s and 1980s when black soldiers began to be stationed in Iceland.[14]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Executive Order 9981". Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Archived from the original on January 22, 2019. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
2. ^ Evans, Farrell (November 5, 2020). "Why Harry Truman Ended Segregation in the US Military in 1948". history.com. A&E Television Networks. Archived from the original on January 9, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
3. ^ "How Harry S. Truman went from being a racist to desegregating the military". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
4. ^ "Survey and Recommendations Concerning the Integration of the Negro Soldier into the Army". Harry S. Truman Library. September 22, 1941. Archived from the original on March 9, 2016.
5. ^ Morden, Bettie J. (1990). "The Women's Army Corps, 1945–1978". history.army.mil. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Center of Military History. pp. 85–87\. Archived from the original on March 1, 2015. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
6. ^ Rice, Alan (June 22, 2018). "Black troops were welcome in Britain, but Jim Crow wasn't: the race riot of one night in June 1943". The Conversation. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
7. ^ "Opinions About Negro Infantry Platoons in White Companies of 7 Divisions". Harry S. Truman Library. July 3, 1945. Archived from the original on October 10, 2017.
8. ^ Susan M. Glisson, The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), 91
9. ^ Moye, J. Todd (2012). Freedom Flyers : The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. p. 193\. ISBN 9780195386554. "Truman finally broke the logjam in July with the release of Executive Order 9981, which announced: It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, or religion or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Omar Bradley bucked the order, using language that already sounded antique. Bradley pronounced, "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." Truman reiterated, however, that though the order called for gradual desegregation of the armed forces, the armed forces would desegregate. He forced Bradley to issue a public apology."
10. ^ "Marine Corps Base Camp LeJeune – History". Official Website of the United States Marine Corps. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
11. ^ Nichols, David A. (2007). A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 42–50. ISBN 978-1-4165-4554-5.
12. ^ Robert B. Edgerton, Hidden Heroism: Black Soldiers in America's Wars, Barnes & Noble, 2009, p. 165
13. ^ MacGregor, Morris J. Jr. (2001). "Integration of the Armed Forces". history.army.mil. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Center of Military History. pp. 548–549\. Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
14. ^ Ingimundarson, Valur (October 1, 2004). "Immunizing against the American Other: Racism, Nationalism, and Gender in U.S.-Icelandic Military Relations during the Cold War". Journal of Cold War Studies. 6 (4): 65–88\. doi:10.1162/1520397042350892. ISSN 1520-3972. S2CID 57559468.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Gardner, Michael R. Harry Truman and civil rights (SIU Press, 2002) online
* Gropman, Alan L. The Air Force Integrates, 1949–1964 (Office of Air Force History, 1986) online
* Rottinghaus, Brandon, and Adam L. Warber. "Unilateral orders as constituency outreach: executive orders, proclamations, and the public presidency." Presidential Studies Quarterly 45.2 (2015): 289–309.
* Taylor, Jon E. Freedom to Serve: Truman, Civil Rights, and Executive Order 9981 (Routledge, 2013)
* Warber, Adam L., Yu Ouyang, and Richard W. Waterman. "Landmark executive orders: Presidential leadership through unilateral action." Presidential Studies Quarterly 48.1 (2018): 110–126.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Executive Order 9981.

English Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Executive Order 9981

* Full text of Executive Order 9981 Archived January 22, 2019, at the Wayback Machine from the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum
* Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940–1965 (Defense Studies Series) by Morris J. MacGregor Jr., from the United States Army Center of Military History
* "'Blacks Must Wage Two Wars:' The Freeman Field Uprising & WWII Desegregation", Indiana Historical Bureau
* "Fighting Together in Korea" - episode of the BBC World Service's radio program The Documentary concerning the effects of Executive Order 9981

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Harry S. Truman

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Public image|

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Family|

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* ← Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Civil rights movement (1954–1968)

Events
(timeline)|

| Prior to 1954|

* Journey of Reconciliation
* Executive Order 9981
* Murders of Harry and Harriette Moore
* Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
* McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)
* Baton Rouge bus boycott

|

1954–1959|

* Brown v. Board of Education
* Bolling v. Sharpe
* Briggs v. Elliott
* Davis v. Prince Edward County
* Gebhart v. Belton
* Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company
* Read's Drug Store sit-in
* Emmett Till
* Montgomery bus boycott
* Browder v. Gayle
* Tallahassee bus boycott
* Mansfield school desegregation
* 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
* "Give Us the Ballot"
* Royal Ice Cream sit-in
* Little Rock Nine
* Cooper v. Aaron
* Civil Rights Act of 1957
* Ministers' Manifesto
* Dockum Drug Store sit-in
* Katz Drug Store sit-in
* Kissing Case
* Biloxi wade-ins

1960–1963|

* New Year's Day March
* Sit-in movement
* Greensboro sit-ins
* Nashville sit-ins
* Sibley Commission
* Atlanta sit-ins
* Savannah Protest Movement
* Greenville Eight
* Civil Rights Act of 1960
* Ax Handle Saturday
* New Orleans school desegregation
* Gomillion v. Lightfoot
* Boynton v. Virginia
* University of Georgia desegregation riot
* Rock Hill sit-ins
* Robert F. Kennedy's Law Day Address
* Freedom Rides
* Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks
* Garner v. Louisiana
* Albany Movement
* Cambridge movement
* University of Chicago sit-ins
* "Second Emancipation Proclamation"
* Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot
* Atlanta's Berlin Wall
* "Segregation now, segregation forever"
* Stand in the Schoolhouse Door
* 1963 Birmingham campaign
* Letter from Birmingham Jail
* Children's Crusade
* Birmingham riot
* 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
* John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation on Civil Rights
* Detroit Walk to Freedom
* March on Washington
* "I Have a Dream"
* Big Six
* St. Augustine movement

1964–1968|

* Twenty-fourth Amendment
* Chester school protests
* Bloody Tuesday
* 1964 Monson Motor Lodge protests
* Freedom Summer
* workers' murders
* Civil Rights Act of 1964
* Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States
* Katzenbach v. McClung
* 1964–1965 Scripto strike
* 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches
* "How Long, Not Long"
* SCOPE Project
* Voting Rights Act of 1965
* Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections
* March Against Fear
* White House Conference on Civil Rights
* Chicago Freedom Movement/Chicago open housing movement
* Loving v. Virginia
* Memphis sanitation strike
* King assassination
* funeral
* riots
* Civil Rights Act of 1968
* Poor People's Campaign
* Green v. County School Board of New Kent County
* Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.
* 1968 Olympics Black Power salute

Activist
groups|

* Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
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* The Freedom Singers
* United Auto Workers (UAW)
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Activists|

* Juanita Abernathy
* Ralph Abernathy
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* Zev Aelony
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* Muhammad Ali
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* Ramsey Clark
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* Xernona Clayton
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* Kathleen Cleaver
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* Charles E. Cobb Jr.
* Annie Lee Cooper
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* Vernon Dahmer
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* Abraham Lincoln Davis
* Angela Davis
* Joseph DeLaine
* Dave Dennis
* Annie Bell Robinson Devine
* John Wesley Dobbs
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* A. D. King
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* Al Raby
* Lincoln Ragsdale
* A. Philip Randolph
* George Raymond
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* Bernice Johnson Reagon
* Cordell Reagon
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* Walter Reuther
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* Hartman Turnbow
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* Q. V. Williamson
* Andrew Young
* Whitney Young
* Sammy Younge Jr.
* Bob Zellner
* James Zwerg

By region|

* Omaha, Nebraska
* South Carolina

Movement
songs|

* "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round"
* "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus"
* "Kumbaya"
* "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize"
* "Oh, Freedom"
* "This Little Light of Mine"
* "We Shall Not Be Moved"
* "We Shall Overcome"
* "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)"

Influences|

* Nonviolence
* Padayatra
* Sermon on the Mount
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Ahimsa
* Satyagraha
* The Kingdom of God Is Within You
* Frederick Douglass
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Mary McLeod Bethune

Related|

* Lyndon B. Johnson
* Jim Crow laws
* Lynching in the United States
* Plessy v. Ferguson
* Separate but equal
* Buchanan v. Warley
* Hocutt v. Wilson
* Powell v. Alabama
* Smith v. Allwright
* Hernandez v. Texas
* Loving v. Virginia
* African-American women in the movement
* Jews in the civil rights movement
* Fifth Circuit Four
* 16th Street Baptist Church
* Kelly Ingram Park
* A.G. Gaston Motel
* Bethel Baptist Church
* Brown Chapel
* Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
* Holt Street Baptist Church
* Edmund Pettus Bridge
* March on Washington Movement
* African-American churches attacked
* List of lynching victims in the United States
* Freedom Schools
* Freedom songs
* Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
* "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence"
* Voter Education Project
* 1960s counterculture
* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Eyes on the Prize

Legacy|

* In popular culture
* Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
* Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
* Civil Rights Memorial
* Civil Rights Movement Archive
* Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument
* Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
* Freedom Rides Museum
* Freedom Riders National Monument
* King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
* Martin Luther King Jr. Day
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
* other King memorials
* Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
* National Civil Rights Museum
* National Voting Rights Museum
* St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
* Olympic Black Power Statue

Noted
historians|

* Taylor Branch
* Clayborne Carson
* John Dittmer
* Michael Eric Dyson
* Jonathan Eig
* Chuck Fager
* Adam Fairclough
* David Garrow
* David Halberstam
* Vincent Harding
* Steven F. Lawson
* Doug McAdam
* Diane McWhorter
* Charles M. Payne
* Thomas E. Ricks
* Timothy Tyson
* Akinyele Umoja
* Movement photographers

Civil rights movement portal

Authority control databases |

* NARA

|

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