![]() "What happens is that these units turn the tide," Bowery said, "and the Army in Korea is on a path to integration, because they have finally and completely disproven this idea that Black soldiers cannot be trusted alongside white soldiers." Desegregated troops in the Korean War.Īs the buildup to war in Vietnam was beginning, and the civil rights movement was reaching critical mass, Joe Anderson was a cadet at West Point. With all-white combat units retreating in the face of the North Korean onslaught, Black soldiers were sent in to fight alongside whites. "Desegregation begins in foxholes in Korea." Roy Davenport is one of history's hidden figures, using his inside knowledge of the Pentagon's personnel practices to show the Fahy Committee the Army's response for desegregation "wasn't worth the paper it was written on."īut what really turned the coin, said Bowery, was the Korean War. Records show its staff director warning Fahy, "The Army intends to do as little as possible" – and might have gotten away with it, except for a Black civilian who worked at the Pentagon. Truman appointed a committee headed by Charles Fahey to enforce the order. According to Bowery, the Army's reaction to the order, particularly in its leadership, was stridently opposed. He was seen to be someone who likely was not going to win re-election."ĭays after he was nominated, Truman issued the order to end segregation in the military. According to Graham, Truman's political future in 1948 was "on the ropes. Risky politics, for a president seeking a second term. He proclaimed, "There is no justifiable reason for discrimination because of ancestry or religion or race or color." Speaking at the Lincoln Memorial, on June 29, 1947, Truman became the first president ever to address the NAACP. President Harry Truman addresses the NAACP in Washington, D.C., June 29, 1947. An all-Black Women's Army Corps unit from WWII is still fighting for recognition ("CBS Evening News").Bill benefits after World War II ("CBS Evening News") But Harry Truman was not gonna let that stand." An all-white jury acquitted the defendants, and life went on in South Carolina. Graham said, "Truman, I think, just says, 'That's enough.' He instructed the Justice Department to investigate. You could not ignore the bravery of African Americans."Īnd Truman could not ignore the despicable treatment of Black veterans, like Isaac Woodard, a soldier who came home from the war, and was dragged from a bus by South Carolina police and beaten so severely that he permanently lost his sight. "It forwarded the civil rights movement, because of the massive scale of service of African Americans in uniform," he said. Army's Center of Military History, called the war "a watershed moment in the process of segregation." He said the one million African Americans who fought for freedom in uniform while being denied it at home exposed the hypocrisy of segregation. Six years later, as World War II entered its final agony, Truman was thrust into the presidency by the sudden death of Franklin Roosevelt, and found himself the commander-in-chief of two armies – one Black, and one white.Ĭharles Bowery, director of the U.S.
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