Background

As the Cold War deepened in 1948, Congress began considering the possibility of a Selective Service Act–a draft bill–that would create a peacetime army. At the same time, the legislators debated a Universal Military Training bill. If passed, it would fulfill an idea promoted by former army chief of staff, General George C. Marshall. According to Marshall biographer Mark Stoler, the concept was to create "not a large, expensive, and dangerous standing army, but rather an enormous pool of trained men who would only be called up when needed."1 If Marshall’s bill became law, every able-bodied eighteen-year-old male would receive one year of military training, but would not serve unless needed in a time of crisis. The draft, on the other hand, would provide for the conscription of "selected" young men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five who would serve in the military. Eventually it would be the Selective Service Act that would prevail, but as both bills wound through the legislative process, it seemed apparent to A. Philip Randolph that neither changed the condition of segregation in the U.S. armed forces. Thus Randolph mobilized to fight for the desegregation of all service branches. In 1941 Randolph had put pressure on President Franklin D. Roosevelt to desegregate the defense industry by executive order or face a March on Washington of 100,000 blacks. Now he applied similar pressure on President Harry S. Truman, threatening that young blacks, eligible for the draft, would refuse to serve unless the armed services were desegregated.

Activity:

1. Review Part 2 of the Student Text to reacquaint yourself with the story of the desegregation of the military.

2. Click on Civil Rights to read the message Truman sent to the Congress on February 2, 1948. List at least three suggestions Truman made about what should be done to end violations of civil rights against blacks. Include those that relate to desegregation of the military.

3. After you have completed your review, click on Letters to find a set of correspondence between A. Philip Randolph and President Truman or his staff between January and August 1948.

4. Skim the correspondence quickly to become familiar with the sequence of events and to identify the "key players." You won’t understand every detail in this phase–the idea is to get an overall impression of the letters. Print a packet of letters.

5. Reread relevant letters to generate a set of notes in response to the following questions:

• In the early January letters, how are Randolph’s requests for a meeting with the president treated?

• How does Randolph respond to Mr. Connelly’s letter saying he "cannot arrange [an interview] in the near future?"

• What was the purpose of the European Recovery Program referred to in his January 12 letter? (Check your history text if need be for the answer.) What point is Randolph making by mentioning it?

• Is there a veiled threat of some future protest in the language of Randolph’s letter of January 12?

• In David Niles’s letter of January 20, how is Randolph described to the president’s secretary, Matt Connelly?

• What does it mean to be a "left-winger"?

• Describe what the Department of the Army did to resolve a special situation arising in the New Jersey National Guard.

• Do you think Randolph would have been happy with the way the Department of the Army resolved the New Jersey constitutional provision question? Why or why not?

• According to Randolph’s February 27 letter to Truman, what happened to the antidiscrimination portion of the Universal Military Training bill before Congress?

• Why do you think Randolph requested a photograph of his scheduled March 22 meeting with the president?

• According to the memorandum that the Committee Against Jimcrow left with the president after the March 22 meeting, what grievance does the committee have with Truman?

• What does the committee think of the recent Department of the Army "New Jersey" decision? Why?

• What are four actions the committee urges the president to make?

• What do the April 9 letter exchanges among Clark Clifford, James Forrestal, Philleo Nash, and the president reveal about the administration’s willingness to end segregation in the armed services?

• Randolph in his letter of June 29 is clearly upset with President Truman. Why? What does he threaten to do if the situation is not resolved?

• According to the secretary of defense, James Forrestal, in his letter of July 17 to Randolph, the administration had taken what steps to resolve some of the problems outlined by the Committee Against Jimcrow?

• What is Forrestal’s criticism of Randolph at the end of the letter? What is it a reference to? (See Student Text)

• Who is Mary McLeod Bethune, mentioned in Forrestal’s letter? What do you think the secretary of the army hopes to accomplish by referring to the Bethune letter?

• In Randolph’s July 15 message to President Truman, what does he use as evidence that the issuance of an executive order would meet with approval?

• What is the veiled threat underlying Randolph’s comment in his July 15 letter to Truman?

Note: Click on Executive Order 9981 and make a copy of it for use with the next questions.

• According to Grant Reynolds’s memorandum to J. Howard McGrath, the Committee Against Jimcrow in Military Service and Training has some questions about the implementation of Truman’s executive order. What are some of its concerns?

• Check the Student Text to see how Randolph’s fears were allayed after his meeting with McGrath.

6. Using what you learned from the Student Text, President Truman’s civil rights address, and the White House correspondence, write an essay or participate in a class discussion supporting or refuting one of these theses:

• On February 2, 1948, President Truman sent a civil rights message to Congress. He began: "Not all Americans are free of violence. Not all groups are free to live and work where they please or to improve their conditions of life by their own efforts. Not all groups enjoy the full privileges of citizenship."2 Despite these words, the president seemed in no hurry to erase inequalities between blacks and whites in the military until A. Philip Randolph applied continuous pressure and the threat of civil disobedience.

• Before A. Philip Randolph applied pressure on President Truman to desegregate the military, Truman had already taken important steps toward accomplishing that goal. Even without Randolph's pressure, Truman most likely would have provided the leadership for the desegregation of the armed services.