The President's Committee on Civil Rights was a United States presidential commission established by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Harry Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...

in 1946. The committee was created by Executive Order 9808 on December 5, 1946, and instructed to investigate the status of

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

in the country and propose measures to strengthen and protect them. The committee submitted the report of its findings, entitled ''To Secure These Rights,'' to President Truman in December 1947, and Truman proposed comprehensive civil rights legislation to Congress, and ordered antidiscrimination and desegregation throughout the government and armed forces. The committee included business, labor, and religious leaders, in addition to scholars.

History

The committee was charged with examining the condition of

in the United States, producing a written report of their findings, and submitting recommendations on improving civil rights in the United States. In December 1947, the committee produced a 178-page report entitled ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights''. In the report, it proposed to establish a permanent Civil Rights Commission, Joint Congressional Committee on Civil Rights, and a Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice; to develop federal protection from

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of i ...

; a permanent fair employment practice commission; to abolish

poll taxes A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. ''Poll'' is an archaic term for "head" or "top of the head". The sen ...

; and urged other measures. Furthermore, the report raised the distinct possibility that the

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from 1945 could also be used as a source of law to fight persistent racial discrimination in the US. On July 26, 1948, President Truman advanced the recommendations of the report by signing Executive Order 9980 and Executive Order 9981. Executive Order 9980 ordered the desegregation of the federal work force and Executive Order 9981 ordered the desegregation of the armed services. He also sent a special message to

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

on February 2, 1948, to implement the recommendations of the President's Committee on Civil Rights. The President's Committee on Civil Rights report also paved way for African-American diplomats to break into previously white-dominated positions. Under President Truman, Edward R. Dudley would become the first African American given an ambassadorship, in part due to the findings of race-relations from the committee. However, these moves were largely done due to a harming of foreign relations due to the United States' race problem. Even with the committee's findings, President Truman had trouble acting on his own research, due to domestic backlash.

Membership

The committee was composed of 15 members:"Agency History, Records of the President's Committee on Civil Rights Record Group 220"
from the Truman Presidential Museum & Library, retrieved January 23, 2006 * Charles Edward Wilson (Chairman) * Sadie T. Alexander * James B. Carey * John Sloan Dickey *

Morris Ernst Morris Leopold Ernst (August 23, 1888 – May 21, 1976) was an American lawyer and prominent attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In public life, he defended and asserted the rights of Americans to privacy and freedom from c ...

* Roland B. Gittelsohn * Frank Porter Graham * Francis J. Haas * Charles Luckman * Francis P. Matthews * Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. * Henry Knox Sherrill * Boris Shishkin * Dorothy Rogers Tilly * Channing Heggie Tobias

Publication

*President's Committee on Civil Rights. ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of the President's Committee on Civil Rights''. Washington: GPO, 1947.

References

Notes

"Executive Order 9980, Regulations Governing Fair Employment Practices Within the Federal Establishment,"
an

from Federal Register, retrieved January 23, 2006. For more details on the desegregation of the armed forces see
"Truman Library: Desegregation of the Armed Forces Online Research File"
from the Truman Presidential Museum & Library, retrieved May 4, 2010.

External links

*

' Full text of document available from th

* Christopher N.J. Roberts
William H. Fitzpatrick’s Editorials on Human Rights (1949)
published by Arbeitskreis Menschenrechte im 20. Jahrhundert, published at "Quellen zur Geschichte der Menschenrechte" {{Authority control African-American history between emancipation and the civil rights movement African-American history of the United States military Civil rights movement Establishments by United States executive order History of civil rights in the United States Presidency of Harry S. Truman Civil Rights, President's Committee on