Executive Order 9981
The Executive Order no. 9981 is a presidential decree of US president Harry S. Truman of 26 July 1948 in which he equal treatment and equal opportunities for all members of the armed forces of the United States without regard to their race, color, religion or national origin to Policy guideline stated.
The decree was welcomed by the African American community as the end of racial segregation in the armed forces and is still considered an important step on the way to the end of racial discrimination .
background
First African American under arms
Until after World War II, African Americans in the United States were largely excluded from military service unless it became necessary to resort to them in times of crisis. This pattern was followed during the American Revolution , when about 5,000 blacks served on the American side, and during the wars at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. From about 1800 onwards, the United States Navy ignored official policy and recruited black sailors throughout the century . When the abolition of slavery became one of the main goals of the Civil War in 1863 , the US Army began to use more black people. By the end of the war they made up about ten percent of the troop strength. In 1866, in recognition of the military achievements of black soldiers in the war, two regiments of cavalry and infantry were formed for the first time each from black soldiers, the legendary Buffalo Soldiers .
After the American Civil War, the abolition of slavery, legal equality for ex-slaves, and the right to vote for male ex-slaves were enshrined in the thirteenth through fifteenth constitutional amendments of the United States. Equality was soon undermined , starting in the southern states, through a system of racial segregation , which for example provided for separate educational institutions and also racial segregation in the armed forces. In 1896 the United States Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal facilities for blacks were not against the Constitution. In fact, facilities for blacks were generally worse off than those for whites. Even the units of the armed forces made up of blacks were generally less trained, equipped and supplied than white units.
20th century to 1940
At the beginning of the 20th century, black sailors in the US Navy were hardly used for military purposes , but as staff in officers' fairs. Even that role was soon taken over by Filipinos , with the number of black sailors dropping to around 400 by the 1930s. The Land Forces not only argued that black units in a segregated white population would represent an "open wound". African-Americans were also denied the skills and intelligence required in a modern army, and it was suggested that in previous wars, white troops fought the important battles and made the greatest sacrifices.
With the onset of World War I , the need for soldiers increased again, and even recruiting offices in the southern states did not hesitate to accept black recruits to meet their quotas. The United States Marine Corps took as always since 1798 no blacks, and the Navy accepted them only as stewards . Most of the approximately 380,000 African American soldiers of the First World War served in the US Army . In 1917 two black infantry divisions were formed, one of which was deployed as a unit, and the other was partially subordinated to the French army. In the decades that followed, black soldiers continued to be discriminated against, and the newly formed Army Air Corps did not accept Afro-Americans, and they were only accepted into the Army in the four remaining all-black regiments of the 93rd Division .
Executive Order 8802 from 1941
In 1941, as part of the March on Washington Movement, civil rights activists Asa Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin planned a march on Washington for the first time in history to demonstrate not only against discrimination in working life, but also against racial segregation in the armed forces . The military leadership declared it impossible to lift the segregation. The demonstration did not take place, however, because President Franklin D. Roosevelt with his Executive Order 8802 of June 25, 1941 had partially fulfilled the demands of the movement. The equality promised therein, however, was limited to the arms industry and not related to the armed forces themselves.
African American in World War II
It was not until 1943 that blacks were accepted into the United States Marine Corps for the first time and were also accepted back into military service in the Navy. The target of ten percent black soldiers for the Army was not achieved, however, because the strict separation of white soldiers required by the leadership could not be organized. Prejudices against the “less skilled” black soldiers persisted in the military leadership, and because of the expense of racial segregation, they were viewed as an overall problem. As during the First World War, the number of violent attacks directed against blacks rose sharply, especially in the southern states, and black soldiers in uniform were again affected. In addition, there was discrimination and harassment in everyday work. A departure from the usual racial segregation took place in 1944 as part of the Ardennes offensive . An acute shortage of personnel prompted the generals to offer black soldiers in supply units to complete additional training and to be deployed where they were needed regardless of their race. Within a short time, more than 4,500 black soldiers volunteered, some of whom waived their rank. More than 50 platoons of African American soldiers were eventually integrated into white companies and fought with them in France, Belgium and Germany to the satisfaction of their superiors.
Further discrimination in the post-war years
In the years after the end of the war, the Afro-American population grew dissatisfied with the rise in discrimination in the armed forces in the immediate post-war period. In the economy, black employment increased, as did their union membership and the number of registered voters in the northern United States. At the same time, Harry S. Truman was a president in office who spoke out more clearly than most of his predecessors in favor of equality for African-Americans . As early as February 1948, he informed Congress that he had instructed the Minister of Defense to end segregation in the armed forces. The military leadership opposed the plan, and Asa Philip Randolph and other activists threatened civil disobedience against the new defense law unless segregation was abolished. In addition, 1948 was an election year and Truman relied on the votes of black voters. Bills aimed at abolishing racial segregation had no prospect of success in Congress. Truman used his room for maneuver as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to circumvent Congress with a presidential decree.
Executive Order 9981
Executive Order 9981 was signed by Truman on July 26, 1948 and published two days later.
Content of the decree
In the text of the decree, Truman declared equal treatment and equal opportunities for all members of the armed forces, regardless of race, skin color, religion or national origin, as part of his policy. Associated with this was the establishment of the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services , a commission with an advisory function, which, however, had to be granted unrestricted access to information from all federal authorities and the armed forces and was able to summon the witnesses.
Effects on the armed forces
The appointed five-person commission began its work in 1949. It was chaired by Charles H. Fahy . Other members included John H. Sengstacke , editor of the Chicago Defender , a major African American weekly newspaper, and Lesley Granger , president of the National Urban League . With the help of the reports from the Fahy Committee, Truman had an effective tool to determine the extent of racial discrimination in the armed forces and to take effective action as commander in chief on the basis of the findings. Nevertheless, the Army resisted desegregation with all its might, using the arguments of the past decades. For example, the future President General Dwight D. Eisenhower had declared before the Senate Committee on Armed Services before the Executive Order was issued that black Americans had poorer prospects of advancement in a fully integrated army because of their poorer education. The Navy wrote an equal treatment policy, but it was only half-heartedly implemented in practice. Only the US Air Force, which emerged from the Army in 1947 as the fourth armed forces, worked energetically towards the abolition of racial segregation.
The argument between the Fahy Committee and the Army dragged on, although the committee found extensive evidence that racial segregation was a waste of resources and violated the principle of equal opportunities. In January 1950, the Army apparently gave up its resistance and issued a new personnel guideline that provided for blacks to be deployed according to their skills and in each unit, regardless of race or skin color. Taking into account the then applicable proportion of a maximum of ten percent Afro-Americans in the Army, there would have been a transition period of years. It was only Truman's renewed personal intervention that resulted in the abolition of the quota demanded by the committee being implemented. With the abolition of the quota, the number of black volunteers rose dramatically and quickly exceeded the capacity of the "black" units, with the result that racial segregation could no longer be maintained. Mixed units were used from the beginning of the Korean War, by the end of that war the all-African American units were abolished, and black and white units served together in nine out of ten units.
Further steps towards equality
With the decision of Brown v. The 1954 Board of Education of the United States Supreme Court eased racial segregation even further. A final, also civil, abolition of racial segregation in the USA took place through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 under President Lyndon B. Johnson .
Public reactions
greeting
Executive Order 9981 has been the subject of controversy in the media and the public. The African-American media and civil rights groups enthusiastically welcomed the decree and immediately saw it as the end of racial segregation in the armed forces. To this day, the decree is often viewed as the abolition of racial segregation in the American armed forces and has great significance in the awareness of the civil rights movement. For the black soldiers in the armed forces, it represented enormous progress.
Rejection
In the southern states , where discrimination against black citizens was even more prevalent than in other parts of the country, the president's initiative met with rejection. In particular, the white population there rejected equality for African Americans predominantly. In the 1948 presidential election , which took place on November 2nd, just a few months after Truman's decree, the majority of the southern states no longer voted for the Democrat Truman, but with Strom Thurmond for the candidate of a splinter group ( Dixiecrats ). However, since Truman was successful in other parts of the United States, he was still able to win the election. However, as a direct consequence of Truman's racial policy, the southern states increasingly turned away from the Democrats towards the Republicans (see Solid South ).
Historical evaluation
Executive Order 9981 is considered by many historians to be one of the most seminal domestic political decisions of a US president, as Truman's efforts were the starting point for further development for black equality. His successors, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, also spoke out in favor of equality and took measures to ensure equality for African Americans. This development culminated in the 1960s under Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency, when a number of landmark laws were passed.
literature
- Richard M. Dalfiume: Introduction . In: Eric Gallagher: A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Papers of the NAACP. Part 9. Discrimination in the US Armed Forces, 1918-1955 Series A: General Office Files on Armed Forces' Affairs, 1918-1955 , University Publications of America, Bethesda, MD 1989, pp. Vii – xvi, ISBN 1-55655- 116-9 .
- Michael Foley: Harry S. Truman , Chelsea House, Philadelphia, PA 2004, ISBN 0-7910-7596-6 .
- Garth E. Pauley: The Modern Presidency & Civil Rights. Rhetoric on Race from Roosevelt to Nixon , Texas A&M University Press, College Station, TX 2001, ISBN 1-58544-107-4 .
- Jeff Wallenfeldt (Ed.): The Black Experience in America. From Civil Rights to the Present , Britannica Educational Publishing, New York, NY 2011, ISBN 978-1-61530-177-5 .
Web links
- Truman Library: President Truman issues Executive Order No. 9981 Desegregating the Military (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Richard M. Dalfiume: Introduction , 1989, p vii.
- ↑ Jeff Wallenfeldt (Ed.): The Black Experience in America. From Civil Rights to the Present , 2011, p. 32.
- ↑ Michael Foley: Harry S. Truman , 2004, p. 68.
- ↑ Richard M. Dalfiume: Introduction , 1989, p viii.
- ↑ Richard M. Dalfiume: Introduction , 1989, p ix-x.
- ↑ Richard M. Dalfiume: Introduction , 1989, p xi.
- ↑ a b Richard M. Dalfiume: Introduction , 1989, p xii.
- ^ Garth E. Pauley: The Modern Presidency & Civil Rights , 2001, pp. 22-23.
- ↑ Richard M. Dalfiume: Introduction , 1989, p xiii.
- ↑ Richard M. Dalfiume: Introduction , 1989, p xiv.
- ^ Garth E. Pauley: The Modern Presidency & Civil Rights , 2001, pp. 38-39.
- ↑ Christof Mauch: The American Presidents CH Beck Munich ISBN 9783406587429 p. 332.
- ↑ a b c Richard M. Dalfiume: Introduction , 1989, p. Xv.
- ↑ a b Michael Foley: Harry S. Truman , 2004, p. 70.
- ↑ a b Executive Order 9981 of July 26, 1948, Federal Register 13 FR 4313, Wednesday, July 28, 1948.
- ↑ a b About.com: Desegregation of the Armed Forces (English)
- ^ Garth E. Pauley: The Modern Presidency & Civil Rights , 2001, p. 61.
- ↑ Richard M. Dalfiume: Introduction , 1989, p xv-xvi.
- ↑ Jeff Wallenfeldt (Ed.): The Black Experience in America. From Civil Rights to the Present , 2011, p. 11.
- ↑ Christof Mauch: The American Presidents CH Beck Munich ISBN 9783406587429 p. 332.