President Truman Orders Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces
1948 order by President Truman
What was President Truman Orders Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces?
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). It was a crucial event in the post–World War II civil rights movement and a major achievement of Truman's presidency.
President Truman Orders Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces is tied to July 26, 1948. Key people connected to the event include Harry S. Truman, Omar Bradley, A. Philip Randolph, Kenneth Claiborne Royall.
Why President Truman Orders Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces still matters
Wikipedia's entry summarizes Executive Order 9981 in a few sentences. This article follows the record past the signing itself, into General Omar Bradley's resistance and forced apology, Secretary Royall's forced retirement, and the documented exception at the Keflavik base in Iceland that kept excluding Black soldiers into the 1960s, showing how many years of institutional resistance separated the order's language from the reality inside the services.
How Did Truman's Desegregation Order Unfold? connects President Truman Orders Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces to a specific historical date. On July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, banning segregation across the United States Armed Forces.