During World War II, African American activists pushed the Roosevelt administration to integrate the armed forces, as well as to enact fair employment practices. Labor leader A. Philip Randolph threatened to bring 100,000 black people for a March on Washington, which prompted President Roosevelt to enact Executive Order 8802, banning discrimination in defense industries. He also assigned newly promoted Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis Sr. to his Advisory Committee on Negro Troop Policies. This appeasement forestalled the March on Washington (until 1963); however, the army’s segregation-without-discrimination policy came under full attack with Truman in the presidency. When black veterans started returning to America at the end of WWII, Randolph warned President Truman about the veteran’s new resolve. He said they would not allow what had happened after every previous war when black men had served the country but the country had not served them. In Truman’s first election season, Randolph and others formed the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service—an action group aimed at ending the practice of military discrimination in enlistment and usage of black troops within all of the armed forces. They sent this letter to President Truman prior to his ordering Executive Order 9981, banning segregation at all military bases.
COMMITTEE AGAINST JIM CROW IN MILITARY SERVICE AND TRAINING
Suite 301
217 West 125th Street New York 27, New York
Telephone: Wadsworth 6-4949
July 15 1948
President Harry S. Truman White House
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. President:
We were indeed happy that you decided to call Congress back into special session in order to act on civil rights legislation, among other matters. We trust that in your message to Congress on July 26 you will specifically ask for legislative approval of anti-lynching and other safeguards for Negro draftees. You are undoubtedly aware of the intense bitterness on the part of Negro citizens because of the bi-partisan “gentlemen’s agreement” to scuttle the Langer amendments to the draft bill early in June.
The action most necessary today to strengthen the fabric of democracy is of the type that would enhance the dignity of second-class citizens. Because the 1948 Republican platform expressed its disapproval of army segregation and because the recently adopted platform of your own party in essence called for the abolition of racial distinctions within the military establishment, we feel that you now have a bi-partisan mandate to end military segregation forthwith by the issuance of an Executive Order.
May we take this opportunity to renew our request for a conference with you in the immediate future to discuss such an Executive Order. The date for registration under the draft is only a month away and it is the hope of all Negro youth that there will be an alternative beyond submission to a discriminatory law and imprisonment for following the dictates of self-respect.
Sincerely,
/s/ Grant Reynolds
National Chairman
/s/ A. Philip Randolph
National Treasurer
Source: Morris J. MacGregor and Bernard C. Nalty, eds., Blacks in the United States Armed Forces: Basic Documents, vol. 8, Segregation Under Siege (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1977), 684.
Questions