OPENING EVENT: TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS
July 27, 2023 at 8:00PM ET
Symposium Welcome – Clifton Truman Daniel
Sponsor’s Welcome – Linwood Ham, Boeing
Introduction of President Barack Obama – Josh Earnest
Video Greeting from former President Barack Obama
Special Remarks – Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II
Introduction of Panel – Alex Burden
The Blinding of Isaac Woodard — The Hon. Judge Gergel
Panel Discussion — Dr. Carla Hayden, Rep. Jim Clyburn and Judge Gergel
Program Video
Participant Bios
Clifton Truman Daniel:
Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. I am Clifton Truman Daniel, and it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the opening event of the Truman Civil Rights Symposium. Seventy-five years ago today, my grandfather, President Harry S. Truman changed the course of American History when he signed executive orders that ended racial segregation in the federal workforce and in the US Armed Forces. On this proud occasion and on behalf of my family, I want to thank all of you who are with us both in person here and online, and all of those, all of you who make this symposium a reality. My grandfather once said, “I don’t believe in little plans. You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one.” The Truman Civil Rights Symposium [Laughter] was a big plan. Two years in the making, these three days will introduce us to nearly 40 individuals. Prominent military and civilian leaders, elected officials, authors, journalists, historians, and veterans of our United States Armed Forces. What an extraordinary opportunity to be part of this essential national conversation. A conversation that invites us to reflect on our founding ideals, on presidential leadership, and on the future of equality in America. Grandpa also said that, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” But today, I want to take a moment to recognize a few folks with the tremendous accomplishment of this symposium.
Do me a favor. Please hold your applause until the last name is read. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the distinguished members of the symposium’s honorary committee, including those who are in attendance tonight. Co-chairs Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and Congressman James Clyburn, Vice Chair Admiral Michelle Howard, Judge Richard Gergel, Brigadier General Donald Scott, and watching from home, Ambassador John Estrada. I’d like to thank the Truman Civil Rights Symposium planning committee, the Library of Congress, and Dr. Carla Hayden for not only allowing us to use this incredible building for our event, but also participating in tonight’s program. The Truman Library Institute and staff and board for all they do to advance my grandfather’s legacy, and our symposium sponsors, they’re all listed in your program, with a special thanks to our title sponsor Boeing and presenting sponsor CPKC. Thank you all. Applause, please. [Applause]
My grandfather is often called an unlikely civil rights champion, and not without reason, but 75 years ago, facing a reelection campaign, his first chance to win the presidency, he championed the very cause that could have spelled defeat. He had this to say about that, “Win, lose, or draw, the people will know where I stand.” In response to the brutality that World War II veterans faced in their own communities, my grandfather put aside political concerns and did what was right. The blinding of Sergeant Isaac Woodard, whose story we will hear tonight, was a turning point in my grandfather’s life that ultimately led to one of the most important and politically courageous acts of his presidency. In 1947, Grandpa formed the first ever President’s Committee on Civil Rights, which delivered its landmark report to secure these rights, which by the way, still stands as a blueprint for building a more equitable society. I invite you to read it if you have a chance. He became the first president to address civil rights organizations, including the NAACP. He was the first president to call for equal voting rights, equal employment, fair housing laws, anti-lynching legislation, and more in a civil rights address to Congress, and ultimately, he did what Congress would not do. On July 26th, 1948, he signed Executive Order 9981. Ignoring public opinion and even some of his own generals, he desegregated the United States Armed Forces. As far as Grandpa was concerned, Americans could no longer reconcile racial inequity with the values that our nation’s soldiers and sailors had fought, bled, and died to uphold. That same day, he signed Executive Order 9980, which banned racial discrimination in federal hiring.
Together they paved the way for civil rights legislation and Supreme Court decisions in the 1950s and 1960s, including Brown versus the Board of Education, integrating the public schools. Without Executive Order 9981, our nation would not have had leaders like Army General Colin Powell, who became the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first Black US Secretary of State. We would not have had Lloyd Austin, a retired US Army four-star general, as our Secretary of Defense. The first Black American to serve in that role. We would not have Michelle Howard, a retired Navy Admiral who became the first Black woman to reach three and four stars in the armed forces and the first Black woman to command a Navy ship. We would not have General CQ Brown Jr. serving as the Chief of the Air Force and recently nominated as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I’ve often said that my grandfather’s greatest accomplishment was showing the country and the world that an ordinary middle-class American from the Midwest, a farmer, a small businessman, and a citizen soldier can rise to the highest office in this land and do a better job of it than almost anybody else. [Applause] That is the promise of this country, and it must be extended to all Americans. The objectives he pursued through his civil rights decisions remain as relevant and important now as they were in 1948, and we still have a lot of work to do. As my grandfather said, “Whether discrimination is based on race or creed or color or land of origin, it is utterly contrary to the American ideals of democracy.”
I’m excited to embark on this journey with you. So, let’s get to it. It is my honor to bring to the stage director of military and veteran affairs to the Boeing company, Linwood Ham. Mr. Ham is responsible for the development and execution of programs that positively impact the veteran and military family community and for leading the Boeing global engagement relationship with talent management and other Boeing stakeholders in support of veteran recruitment and hiring programs. Previously, he worked at the Institute for Security Governance, where he led and guided institutional capacity-building programs in the Indo-Pacific region. He also worked for the US Institute of Peace, where he led inter-organizational projects on addressing fragile states, understanding risk to US frontline diplomats and development professionals, and United Nations peacekeeping reform. Mr. Ham served over 24 years in the United States Army with more than 12 years of experience in developing, executing, and assessing national policy directives at the United States Department of Defense and the US Department of State. Friends, please join me in welcoming to the stage for a message from our title sponsor, the Boeing Company, Linwood Ham. [Applause]
Linwood Ham:
Thank you, Clifton, for those kind words and the introduction. Good evening, distinguished guests. Good evening, friends. I am honored here tonight representing the Boeing Company and our partnership with the Truman Library’s commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the desegregation of the United States Armed Forces. As a proud army veteran and West Point graduate, and a son of Washington, DC, Southeast DC, I am one of so many who know the importance of what our president did to open the doors for so many African Americans and so many of them who paved a very difficult and trying a path so that I could enjoy 24 years of service as Clifton described. It was my honor to do that, but I know that every day, it was my opportunity paid for by those who started on that path opened up because of the work of President Truman. In the last 75 years, we have seen those from the minority communities raise their hands to serve at a rate greater than their representative rate in our country. Our military is revered around the world for many reasons, not the least of which and most importantly because allies and partners from around the world look at us and say, “You get the very best from every part of your society on order to make this nation strong because we have the strongest defense force because we pick the very best from everyone.” Aligned with President Truman’s vision, Boeing is committed to ensuring equality of treatment and opportunity for all those who serve. Making investments in organizations supporting veterans of color and the families who serve alongside. We’re thrilled every single day to work with over 500 partners that each day work to advance civic engagement, community involvement, economic mobility, mental health and benefits that are ill-treated and served to the underserved and underrepresented communities where we live and work.
Tonight, it was mentioned that we shall hold later a discussion about Isaac Woodard, someone I’ve thought about throughout my military career, and in particular, tonight as I was preparing these words. Yes, the brutal attack that befell that gentleman brought into sharp relief the distance and the chasm between the ideal of equality and the reality of racial injustice that existed in our country. That President Truman took the courage to make this choice because it was right; what was being done was immoral because he understood the human bond that was broken time and time again by these acts and so many others that we didn’t even know about. Our nation is the great beneficiary of President Truman’s courageous act to right this terrible wrong. It’s our shared responsibility to advance racial equality and to strive for a more perfect union. I would also like to note that this year is also the 50th anniversary of the all-volunteer force. That all-volunteer force, as I discussed before, was built on the strength of bringing together this nation’s very best, all races, all creeds, all colors, men and women. I’m hopeful that conversations like this one over the next three days and others and the conversations that organizations like the Truman Library Institute will lead will help us find our way to continue every single day to galvanize the country so that we can strengthen our ability to deliver our core values of liberty and justice for all. At Boeing, we often say, “Veterans make us better, and it is also diversity that will make the country the one that we strive for.” Thank you. [Applause]
Josh Earnest:
Good evening. It’s a special privilege to be back in DC, and especially to be here tonight in this beautiful space with this distinguished crowd to mark such a historic occasion. There’s so many lessons to draw from the legacy of President Truman’s desegregation order, and a close examination can inform our views on an incredibly wide range of issues. The racial dynamics of partisan politics, the impact of military service on our democratic society, the exercise of presidential power, the heroism of Black service members who bravely defended the country that conspicuously failed to provide the freedom that they were fighting for, the role of government in creating a path to equality of economic opportunity, the history of the civil rights movement, the current state of the ongoing struggle for civil rights, and so much more. I’m sure a number of ideas about the impact of President Truman’s executive action will be discussed from a variety of perspectives over the course of the next couple of days. But there’s one aspect of President Truman’s decision that I believe is worthy of consideration here at the outset of this symposium, and it’s simply this. Some of the most profound consequences of this executive order would have been impossible to predict when President Truman put pen to paper 75 years ago. To say it more plainly, President Truman didn’t know what the consequences of his executive action would be. He couldn’t have, but he did know one thing. He knew it was the right thing to do. I think there’s a lesson in there for all of us, even those of us who aren’t the President of the United States.
Just yesterday, I had the opportunity to tour the 19-acre construction site that is the future home of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park on Chicago South Side. With the help of technology and a couple of good tour guides, even two years before construction is completed, you can get a good sense of what Mr. and Mrs. Obama and their team are aiming for. Yes, the museum will explore the biographical roots of the president and first lady, it’ll trace the arc of an insurgent presidential campaign, and there’s an extensive review of the issues the Obama administration focused on so intently. Issues like health care, immigration, national security, climate change, education, the great financial crisis, and the rest of it, but a significant portion of the story that the Obamas are looking to tell is about citizenship and the responsibility that each of us has to engage in our democracy and do the right thing to change our community for the better because as President Obama often said, “If you can change your community, you can change your state. If you can change your state, you can change your country, and if you can change your country, you can change the world.” In other words, it’s impossible to predict just how much good you can do. That’s what both of these presidents did when they were at their best. Fortunately for the American people, the courage of their convictions is, in fact, what drove so many of the decisions that President Truman and President Obama made. Even when faced with tough decisions, especially when faced with tough decisions, they didn’t focus on the polls or the politics; they didn’t focus on the clicks or the cable hits. They concentrated on doing the right thing and letting history be the judge. So, tonight, we’ll be assessing the legacy of President Truman’s courageous decision. Perhaps, there’s no better person to kick off this symposium than the very first Black commander-in-chief of the United States military and the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. [Applause]
President Barack Obama:
Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Truman Civil Rights Symposium. I want to start by thanking the Truman Library Institute for organizing this event. Together, you reflect President Truman’s values, and I’m proud that my friend, Josh Earnest, is part of your team. I also want to thank all of you for being here. The next few days are about celebrating the 75th anniversary of two executive orders signed by President Truman. One, banning racial discrimination in federal hiring, and the second, banning segregation in the US military. As president, you learn pretty quickly that there are limits to what you can accomplish without Congress, but you also realize that as the head of the executive branch and the commander-in-chief, you have opportunities to make a real and lasting difference. That’s exactly what President Truman did. The grandson of slave owners, Harry Truman was never the most likely champion for civil rights, but during the depths of Jim Crow, he argued for racial equality, becoming the first president to address the NAACP. When he saw Black veterans returning from World War II only to face violence and abuse at home, he went a step further. By desegregating the federal workforce, the single largest employer in the country, President Truman set a powerful example and created new opportunities for generations of Black Americans, and by ordering the integration of the military, he advanced the civil rights movement and helped prove that America is safer when Americans fight together. Now, another thing you learn as president is that no law or executive order solves everything on its own, and these were no exceptions. President Truman’s order to desegregate the military faced fierce opposition, and much of the progress that ultimately happened was the result of the persistence, dedication, and patriotism of Black servicemen and women, but President Truman made it possible. More than that, he proved once again that each generation can look upon our imperfections and remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals. May we continue to follow his example. Thank you, and enjoy the event. [Applause]
Female:
Please welcome Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II. [Applause]
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II:
Thank you very much for introducing me, President Obama. [Pause] As the representative of Harry Truman’s hometown of Independence, Missouri, I am very much honored to be with you this evening. When Harry Truman became the first president to address the NAACP in 1947, I don’t think anyone could have imagined the progress to come. Since that day, just think about it, Dr. King marched on Washington, President Johnson signed a number of civil rights bills, Thurgood Marshall joined the Supreme Court, and America elected Barack Hussein Obama to the presidency. In his speech, President Truman warned that we cannot afford the luxury of a leisurely attack on discrimination. His words marked the genesis of the civil rights era ringing out in Congress, state legislatures, congregations, living rooms, and city streets all around this great country. Today, we meet to keep Truman’s words alive and usher our children and their children into a new era of civil rights. Before Dr. King divulged his dream, Rosa Parks took a seat on a bus, and President Obama swore his oath, President Truman signed Executive Order 9981. With a stroke of a pen, Truman ended 172 years, 172 years, 172 years of a segregated American army. [Applause] African Americans served in every armed conflict since the Revolutionary War, sacrificing their lives for an American promise, and I guess that’s what a lot of young people looked at when they said Black Lives Matter. The Department of Defense sacrificed Black lives without granting them equal honor. Last Sunday, my father celebrated his 101st birthday, [Applause] and I thank God mostly that he’s still with it. There are obviously some things we would like for him to forget, but he just won’t.
One of the things that I told him about coming to this today, I will remember my little grandson was with me, who I hope I can say it remind him over and over again that he will remember it for the rest of his life. My father sat a little lunch table, and he said, “When Truman signed Executive Order 9981” – he said, “My brothers and I” – his two brothers, “We went zoom.” He uses hands, “Went zoom.” I said, what do you mean zoom? He said, “It gave us a chance to go to college on the GI Bill.” and he said, “Our little classiness is a result of 9981.” My father went to Prairie View A&M University following his brother to Prairie View A&M, and then his younger brother Emanuel went to Texas College. For the first time in my family’s history, America kept its promise. President Truman’s words are salient today as they were 76 years ago. All you have to do is think about the NDAA that we just dealt with in Congress. President Truman dealt with these same issues in 1947, and tragically, we’re still dealing with them today. We cannot afford a relaxed resolve against hate, we cannot afford a dull denunciation against violence, we cannot afford to wait for bigotry to blow the bugle of retreat in the battle for the soul of America, and as President Truman said, “We certainly cannot afford the luxury of leisurely attacks against discrimination.” Maya Angelou reminds us that the onus is upon us all to work to improve the human condition. Let me just end by saying, most of you in Independence, from Independence, you already know. Most people probably don’t know this, though. Independence has its own water system. Almost all the other cities in the metropolitan area, they buy their water from Kansas City except for Independence. Wouldn’t it be nice to force some members of Congress to drink water in Independence? [Applause]
Female:
Please welcome Alex Burden. [00:49:13] [Applause]
Alex Burden:
Hello, friends. How are you? I want to thank everyone who traveled here from Missouri, Independence, Kansas City to be with us. We’ve got a great delegation of Truman friends, new and old, with us for this wonderful – open into this wonderful Truman Civil Rights ceremony, and what I told myself, I wasn’t going to look up at this amazing venue, and I just did, but wow, what a spot. Dr. Hayden, Sue Siegel, wherever you are, thank you for opening up your hearts and your building to this symposium. Thank you all. I’ve got a long list of thank yous. You’re all on the list, but I’m going to keep it to one. Thank you for making this possible. Thank you for supporting this. Thank you for being here. I’m going to introduce our panel because I think you’re here to hear these distinguished people talk: Judge Richard Gergel, Congressman Jim Clyburn, and Doctor Carla Hayden. You’ll be hearing from them shortly. Jim Clyburn is the assistant democratic leader. Does everyone know who Jim Clyburn is? [Laughter] [Applause] Can I skip this? I’m going to skip that part.
What I will say is that Congressman Clyburn has been a devoted, committed friend to the Truman Library, and we are very grateful for everything that you’ve done for us. He is the honorary co-chair of the Truman Civil Rights Symposium. He served on our honorary national committee for the 75th anniversary, and in 2017, Congressman Clyburn came with the late great John Lewis to receive the Truman Legacy of Leadership Award which was a really wonderful experience for us in Kansas City. Thank you again for everything you do for us. [Applause] Doctor Carla Hayden, who I had the pleasure of finally meeting in person today and not across the Zoom lens which is a nice experience as a new friend of the Truman Library. I understand you might be coming to Truman sometime soon. We look forward to that.
Doctor Hayden was nominated the 14th Librarian of Congress by President Obama and confirmed in 2016, she’s got a really lovely biography. I was really amazed to learn. I guess, maybe not surprised, but amazed that she’s the first woman to serve in this post and the first African American to serve in this post. The first and maybe only third in the history of Library of Congress that was actually a librarian. [Laughter] You would think that would be part of the job description if your title is actually a librarian of the Librarian of Congress but she will be moderating our program tonight, very much looking forward to that.
Then finally, Judge Richard Gergel, District Judge from the District of South Carolina, appointed by Barack Obama. He’s written the definitive book about the Truman Civil Rights experience. He’s got a long title. Let me get through this. It’s called “Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sergeant Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge Warren.” That book was converted into a wonderful PBS documentary. If you haven’t seen that, I encourage you to watch it. He’s a very enthusiastic, wonderful storyteller.
What you’re going to see is Judge Gurgel’s going to come up by himself and give about a 10-minute presentation, setting the context, the background of Truman’s Deseg Order. Then, we’re going to flip the stage, and Congressman Clyburn and Doctor Hayden will join Judge Gergel for a little Q and A session. So, thank you all for being here. Thank you for caring about Harry Truman. His story matters. History matters, and we need to continue to teach this important lesson. So, Judge Gergel. [Applause]
Hon. Richard Gergel:
Good evening. Seventy-five years ago today, July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman, let’s see if this clicker will work. My technical people, I told folks beforehand that every time I try a case, I always say that the lawyers will have technical – there we go. Thank you very much. Will have a technical problem. I’m receiving the benefit of my advice.
Seventy-five years ago, President Harry Truman issued one of the most consequential presidential executive orders in American history directing the end of segregation in the Armed Forces of the United States. At the time, President Truman faced an uphill battle to win election in his own right, and there was little public support for new civil rights initiatives. What inspired President Truman to make this bold and transformative decision that would forever change America’s civil rights history, putting at risk his election as the President of the United States.
Let me share with you the back story of the issuance of Executive Order 9981. As World War II ended, there was a great sense of optimism about America’s capacity to spread democracy and individual liberty across the globe, but beneath the veneer of America’s grand self-image as the bastion of freedom and liberty was a stark reality. African Americans residing in the old confederacy lived in a twilight world between slavery and freedom. They no longer had masters, but they did not enjoy the rights of a free people. Black Southerners were routinely denied the right to vote, segregated physically from the dominant white society as a matter of law and relegated to the margins of American prosperity.
In the year following the end of World War II, as 900,000 African American soldiers returned home, most of them to the rural south, numerous racial incidents arose as many returning veterans began challenging the racial status quo. On February 12, 1946, Sergeant Isaac Woodard, a battlefield decorated African American soldier, was discharged from the United States Army at Camp Gordon and boarded a Greyhound bus in Augusta, Georgia to return to his home in Winnsboro, South Carolina, after three years of military service. Like many of the returning African American veterans, Sergeant Woodard desired and expected that he would receive more respectful treatment on the home front as the result of his courageous service in defense of American Liberty.
While traveling on a late-night bus between Augusta, Georgia and Columbia, South Carolina, with frequent stops along the way, Woodward approached the White bus driver and asked if he might step off the bus at the next stop to relieve himself. Greyhound buses of that era did not have restrooms, and the company’s policy was to accommodate such requests from its customers. Instead, the bus driver cursed Woodard, telling him I ain’t got time to wait and angrily directed him to return to his seat at the back of the bus. To the bus driver’s surprise, Woodard snapped back. Telling the bus driver, “Speak to me like I am a man. I am a man just like you.”
At the next stop in Batesburg, South Carolina, the bus driver now no longer concerned with staying on schedule, stepped off the bus in search of a police officer to have Woodard removed from the bus and arrested. Woodard was summoned off the bus and confronted with the police chief of Batesburg, Lynwood Shull. When Woodard attempted to explain himself, the police officer struck Woodard harshly on the head with his blackjack. Woodard was arrested. While being taken to the town jail, he was repeatedly beaten with Shull’s blackjack. Eventually driving the end of the baton into each of Woodard’s eyes. Woodward awoke the next morning in the town jail and realized he could not see.
A few hours later, Woodard was taken to the town court and he was convicted of drunk and disorderly conduct. Woodard was transported later that day to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Columbia, some 30 miles away, and was determined to be immediately permanently blinded. Woodard’s beating and blinding was, tragically, not an isolated incident, and there were many reports of vicious beatings and even racially inspired murders of returning African American veterans. No state, no state prosecuting any of those responsible for these incidents.
On September 19, 1946, a delegation of civil rights leaders met with President Truman in the White House. Deeply distressed by this wave of racial violence against returning black veterans. Prior to the meeting, Truman staff advised the President that despite his desire to respond to the concerns of civil rights leaders, there was little he could do as president to address these incidents. There was a daunting political problem for Truman. If he was perceived by the white Southern Democrats, the most reliable bloc of voters for the Democratic Party, to support any sort of civil rights legislation.
Southern elected officials were resolutely committed to the racial status quo and even the most modest support by the Truman administration to advance civil rights would have been viewed as an existential threat to white supremacy. Truman staff urged the president to express sympathy privately to the civil rights leaders, but to do nothing publicly to alienate his segregation supporters in the South. The meeting included Walter White, the executive secretary of the NAACP, then the most influential civil rights leader in America and a strong political supporter of Truman. As the meeting opened, civil rights leaders urged Truman to call Congress back into session to address the spreading violence against black veterans.
The president expressed sympathy but lamented there was little he could do because there was not public support for new civil rights legislation. It was apparent to Walter White that the president did not appreciate the gravity of the situation. White changed the discussion by sharing with Truman in detail the blinding of Isaac Woodard. As the tragic story of Woodward’s beating and blinding unfolded, Truman sat riveted and became visibly agitated with the idea that a uniformed and decorated American soldier had been so cruelly treated. Abandoning the advice of his staff, Truman stated, “My God, I had no idea it was as terrible as that. We have got to do something.”
The following day, Truman wrote his Attorney General, Tom Clark, and shared with him the story of the blinding of Isaac Woodard, noting that the police officer had deliberately put out the sergeant’s eyes. Truman made it clear that the time for federal action had now arrived. He stated that he intended to appoint the First Presidential Committee on Civil Rights to propose a new agenda to address what was obviously American’s serious racial problems. Truman’s call for immediate action also prompted the Justice Department to initiate within three business days of the arrival of that letter, the criminal prosecution of Lynwood Shull in the Federal District Court in South Carolina for the violation of the civil rights of Isaac Woodard. Then, an unprecedented federal prosecution.
On December 5, 1946, President Truman announced the creation of the First Presidential Commission on Civil Rights. At the time, polls showed 6% of voters supported new civil rights legislation. The Civil Rights Committee convened its first meeting on January 15, 1947, in the Cabinet Room to emphasize the importance of its work. Truman appeared at the first meeting and urged its members to be bold in attacking America’s deep seated racial problems and to determine “just how far the federal government under the Constitution has the right to go in these civil rights matters.”
On June 29, 1947, while his Civil Rights Committee was actively conducting its work, President Truman accepted an invitation to speak at the annual meeting of the NAACP. At the time, no president had ever delivered an address to the nation’s premier civil rights organization, and if a teacher in the South was identified as a member of the NAACP, he or she would be fired. The speech was delivered at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial and was broadcast live by four national radio networks, producing the largest audience ever to hear a civil rights address in American history.
With thousands present in the mall and millions listening on the radio, President Truman delivered an historic address, redefining the role of the modern national government as the protector of the constitutional rights of all of its citizens. He stated that we must move forward “with new concepts of civil rights to safeguard our heritage, the extension of civil rights today means not only the protection of the people against the government, but the protection of the people by the government.” Recognizing the urgency of the moment, President Truman declared that America can no longer afford the luxury of a leisurely attack upon prejudice and discrimination or await the growth of will to action by the slowest state or the most backward community.
As President Truman sat down, an amazed Walter White privately congratulated him for his remarkable address. Truman responded, “I said what I did, Walter, because I mean every word of it, and I’m going to prove I do mean it.” In less than a year after its formation, the Truman Civil Rights Committee issued its landmark report to secure these rights. The report was an amazing public document setting forth in clear and unguarded language the stark truths about America’s profound racial problems. This was not an easy report to issue to a nation in which a majority of states had some form of Jim Crow laws. The great majority of African Americans in the South were disenfranchised and residential segregation existed in virtually every region of the country.
The report made numerous recommendations to address discrimination in voting, housing, employment and racially segregated public facilities, and urge the president to end segregation in the armed forces of the United States. Truman publicly embraced the recommendations of his Civil Rights Committee. Most of the committee’s recommendations require congressional action, an unlikely development in that era, but one of the committee’s most far-reaching proposals, the desegregation of the armed forces, was something President Truman could do without congressional authority in his capacity as the commander in chief.
On July 26, 1948, seventy-five years ago today, President Truman issued Executive Order 9981 ending segregation in the Armed Forces of the United States. He also issued that same day, Executive Order 9980 ending segregation in the Armed Forces. With this headline, I think it’s very instructive from the Chicago Defender, an African American newspaper of the day, headline. of course, “President Truman Wipes Out Segregation In Armed Forces.” Look at the headline in the lower right, “Posse, Bent On Lynching, Searches Woods For Prey.” That was America in 1947, 1948.
In the summer of 1948, as Truman was preparing to launch his reelection campaign and facing a third-party challenge from the Dixiecrats because of his civil rights agenda, a friend from Missouri wrote the president urging him to back off his civil rights program or face certain defeat. President Truman responded in a personal note, sharing with his friend the story of the blinding of Isaac Woodard. Truman concluded his letter by stating, “I can’t agree to such going ons and I shall never approve it. I am going to remedy it, and if that ends up in my failure to be reelected, that failure will be in a good cause.” How many elected officials today would make such a statement?
The Justice Department’s prosecution of the police officer who had blinded Isaac Woodard, produced in the short run a predictable result an all-white jury acquitted the obviously culpable defendant in 28 minutes but what was not predictable was that the presiding federal judge, J. Waties Waring of Charleston, was conscience stricken by the brutal beating of Sergeant Woodard and the unjust result, and soon began issuing landmark civil rights decisions. The first of the courageous southern civil rights judges. This included a 1947 decision declaring the state’s Democratic Party’s all-white primary unconstitutional, which quoted extensively from President Truman’s speech to the NAACP.
Judge Waring thereafter became the target of a cross burning and constant death threats requiring 24-hour US Marshall Protection. In December 1948, one month after his election, winning the election in his own right, President Truman, thumbing his nose at the segregationists, invited Judge Waring to the White House to discuss the advancement of civil rights and publicly praised him as a great judge. In July 1951, Judge Waring would prove the president right, issuing a path breaking dissent in the first school desegregation case, Briggs versus Elliott, declaring that public school segregation was per se unconstitutional.
Waring’s reasoning and language would be adopted three years later by the United States Supreme Court in its unanimous decision in Brown versus Board of Education. Washington insiders predicted that Truman’s executive order desegregating the military and his public support for civil rights would result in his resounding defeat, but Harry Truman had been underestimated his entire political career, and he set off an exhausting cross-country tour known as a whistle stop campaign, drawing massive crowds in towns that had never seen an American president. Despite the advice of his campaign advisers, Truman refused to back down on his civil rights program.
On November 2, 1948, President Truman won what was then the greatest political upset in American history. In his second term, Truman fully embraced the complete desegregation of America’s armed forces. He appointed a committee to implement his executive order, which was resolutely committed to ending segregation in the military. When the army brass resisted the committee’s insistence to desegregate all aspects of military life, Truman steadfastly stood by his committee. By the time President Truman left office in January 1953, 95% of American soldiers served in desegregated units, creating the first multiracial institution in American history. Harry Truman’s successful desegregation of the military marked the beginning of the end of Jim Crow in America. [Applause]
When President Truman would discuss his commitment to civil rights, he would frequently share the story of the blinded African American Sergeant from South Carolina and the failure of the state to hold those responsible who had inflicted such violence on a returning American veteran. Harry Truman was prepared, if necessary, to put his presidency on the line for what he thought was the right thing to do. We fittingly celebrate tonight the resolve and courage of Harry Truman in issuing his executive order 75 years ago today, ending segregation in the armed forces of the United States. Thank you. [Applause]
Female:
Please welcome librarian Carla Hayden, Congressman Jim Clyburn, and Judge Richard Gergel. [Applause]
Dr. Carla Hayden:
You see, I’m a true librarian. I put the book cover straight out. Before we start, though, we’re so pleased to welcome the grandniece of Sergeant Woodard, Miss Williams, would you please stand up? [Applause] Well, this is more than an honor for me to be with both of you and in full disclosure, I have to say, the judge who, when seeing the materials that the curators and librarians brought out, was greeted so warmly by them because of the research you did here. Then, the congressman, who many of you may know is a historian par excellence. [Applause]
I have been present and we like to bring out that the Library of Congress is the home of the papers of the NAACP, the Legal Defense Fund, Thurgood Marshall, Frederick Douglass, I have seen the congressman gently correct some of our librarians and curators about historical facts, particularly if they have anything to do with South Carolina. [Laughter] So to be with these two gentlemen as they talk about a book, and I really encourage everyone to read the judge’s book because it encapsulates so many things. I’d like to start with one question for the congressman, I understand that in your office you have a photograph of the plaintiffs in the Briggs case that the judge talked about, why?
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
Well, thank you very much for having me. Thank you, Judge Gergel for an excellent presentation. Thanks to the Institute for all of your work. I have two sets of pictures on the walls of my office. One set is of the eight African Americans who served in Congress before me. I’m writing my third book, and I’m calling it, “Before I was first, there were eight.” [Laughter] On the opposite wall are black and white photos of the plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education or Briggs v. Elliott, that became Brown v. Board of Education, along with four other cases. Off to the side alone is a picture of Eliza Briggs. Briggs v. Elliott, Harry Briggs was a $22.00 a week attendant at a filling station. His wife Eliza was an $18.00 a week charlady at a local motel.
They took up the case of Briggs v. Elliott that started out as Pearson v. Elliot. Levi Pearson, a gentleman farmer wanting a better education for his children. They were walking 9.4 miles every morning, 9 miles back home every afternoon. All they wanted was a school bus, and they were told by the Superintendent of Education that they were not paying enough taxes to warrant a school bus. So, that’s what the case was all about. I got to know Harry and Eliza Briggs very well. When I was running for Congress in 1992, Mrs. Briggs told me one day, “I don’t want you going hungry at the end of this race. I want you to plan your schedule so that you can come through Summerton especially on Saturday mornings for breakfast.” And I ate a lot of her biscuits. [Laughter]
I think I’m the only one to ever run for Congress and gain weight, but I fell in love with Mrs. Briggs and Mrs. Nelson and all the others. When Dick Riley was elected governor, he had a photographer that went down to Summerton, she was from Clarendon County, and she took pictures of these folks. I thought she’d give them to me, but I think she loaned them to me. I have those pictures on the wall. I say to everybody who asked me about them, “I want those pictures to be a constant reminder to me of how I got here.” I want everybody who come into my office to see the faces of those people, just ordinary people, who would not even be considered middle class by any means but they changed the world much like Isaac Woodard.
Isaac Woodard is important to this whole effort. You heard a lot about Harry Truman, but it was his experience that changed J. Waties Waring. Because after that court case, as you said, the jury stayed out 28 minutes, the federal prosecutor put up the worst case that he could possibly put up, and even the US attorney hurled racial epithets at Isaac Woodard. Truman was incensed by that, and so was J. Waties Waring. He could not get over that. Now you mentioned one case, he then changed his rulings. Now, I don’t know what all happened to him, but I know this, in 1938, Cotton Ed Smith was elected to the United States Senate who proclaimed him – for South Carolina, Cotton is king, white is supreme. Who managed that campaign? J. Waties Waring. He managed that campaign.
From 1938, with that kind of a campaign, running the campaign for Cotton Ed Smith, he, 10 years later, because of this experience of Isaac Woodard, he equalized teacher pay by order. He opened up the Democratic primary because the Democratic Primary had been turned into a private club, and no blacks could participate in it. The great grandson of a confederate general will be called in Charleston, Bluebird, decided that he had seen, heard, and experienced enough. So not only that Isaac Woodard transformed Harry Truman. Isaac Woodard transformed J. Waties Waring, and it was J. Waties Waring’s dissenting opinion in Briggs v. Elliott that became the majority unanimous opinion in Brown v. Board of Education. So, those pictures, for as long as I’m in office, it will be on my office, on my wall. [Applause]
Dr. Carla Hayden:
You mentioned pictures, and we know that just yesterday, the 82nd anniversary of Emmett Till, and the power of image and photography.
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
Well, Emmett Till would have been 82 years old yesterday. That experience, I am one year, three days old. My birthday is July 21st, so last – we spoke yesterday afternoon, and I said that last week I celebrated the 62nd anniversary of my 21st birthday. [Laughter] I celebrated two events for Emmett Till and his mother yesterday. Remember Emmett Till experience.
I think what opened the eyes of a lot of people in this country simply because his mother had the temerity to order that the casket be opened for that funeral. There was a Chicago Defender, Jet Magazine, and Ebony Magazine, they took pictures of that open coffin. Sent those pictures around the country, that is what opened the eyes of a lot of people. Emmett Till, this is kind of interesting for Emmett Till’s birthday to be yesterday and today, being the anniversary that it is. This is a great week for me. [Applause]
Dr. Carla Hayden:
The power of that photograph in Jet Magazine is echoed in the photograph of Sergeant Woodard, and you said judge, that it became…
Hon. Richard Gergel:
Correct. It was some years earlier obviously, but it spread across the country as well and there was a lot of angst, particularly among returning veterans, that this country had not appreciated their service. That picture of the blinded Isaac Woodard resonated for years and was a very important feature in moving both the president and Judge Waring.
Dr. Carla Hayden:
So, the president did see that photo.
Hon. Richard Gergel:
He saw it. It was widely publicized.
Dr. Carla Hayden:
It was that powerful that that image was there. Now, you mentioned Brown. What about Thurgood Marshall’s role in the Briggs case and…
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
Well, this great judge here, I’m going to let him talk about it from the legal standpoint, but from all of my studies, I’ve read a lot about some of the back stories involving the judge’s decisions. I think it’s important for us to understand chronologically, if the court cases have been named by chronology that it would not have been Brown but would have been Briggs. Now, there are a lot of stories floating around as to why the case became Brown. The one that I subscribed to and judge, you can correct me if you think I’m wrong, if you think I’m wrong. [Laughter]
Dr. Carla Hayden:
No.
Hon. Richard Gergel:
No, you’re right.
Dr. Carla Hayden:
Judge, trust me. Don’t do that. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Yes, don’t do it.
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
He’s one of my best friends and mainly because his dear wife, Belinda and I, I knew her long before I knew him. She helped me to get to where I am before I helped him to get to where he is. [Laughter] So, he’s one of my best friends. I love him. But what I think is think that I subscribe to, is that many people may remember, at least from your studies, that John W. Davis who was the 1924 nominee for the Democratic Party for president was the biggest segregationist in the country, and he was the attorney for defending Jim Crow. His big argument was the law is very clear.
The law to him was Plessy versus Ferguson. The law is very clear. So, they’re not arguing against the law. They’re arguing against a way of life. Of course, the only case among the five, remember one was Briggs, Davis was coming out of Virginia, Bolling out of Washington, DC, Gebhardt v. Belton out of Delaware, and the Brown case was coming out of Kansas, the only non-Southern state. So, I’ll always believe the story that decisions have been made in order to nullify John W. Davis’s arguments, they highlighted the Brown case. Now, some people have other views about that. I’m holding on to mine until somebody proves me wrong. [Laughter]
Hon. Richard Gergel:
Let me say by Thurgood Marshall.
Dr. Carla Hayden:
Yes.
Hon. Richard Gergel:
History treats him as the greatest lawyer of the 20th century. It’s well deserved. He is remarkable. He tried many of his most important cases in front of Judge Waring. He won every case. The only one he didn’t win initially was Briggs versus Elliot. But Waring dissented from a three-judge panel, and he won that case before the US Supreme Court. Many people have forgotten that Thurgood Marshall did not argue Brown versus Board. He argued Briggs versus Elliott before the Supreme Court.
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
Right. Absolutely. Now, there’s also a story that he advised Waring, advised the lawyers Carter and Marshall, was he Bob, the…?
Hon. Richard Gergel:
Bob Carter and Marshall were embraced.
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
He advised them to open the frontal attack against segregation rather than to argue for equal rights to get a bus like the white kids had, open a frontal attack. So, segregation per se is…
Hon. Richard Gergel:
Right. What had happened, the NAACP had had a very successful strategy. They used Plessy as a sword. They said, “We’re not challenging separate, but we’re demanding equality,” because the practice was separate and unequal. They were winning cases, lots of cases but the problem was every time you use Plessy to win a case, you were securing the inferiority of African Americans. Judge Waring inspired frankly, by the Isaac Woodard, the case in from of him, brought Thurgood Marshall into his office and said, “I don’t want to try anymore Plessy cases, bring a frontal attack on segregation.” Marshall deferred to his judgement, brought the case, and the rest is history.
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
Right.
Dr. Carla Hayden:
The other book I have here is, “What the Children Told Us: The Untold Story of the Famous ‘Doll Test’ and the Black Psychologist Who Changed the World,” Doctor Kenneth Clark. Newspapers are at the library as well. You have that photo.
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
I do have that photo.
Dr. Carla Hayden:
How did that figure in with…?
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
Well, because of the – I also had the photo of all the plaintiffs in one photo with Reverend J. A. DeLaine, who organized them, but I think that that courtroom experiment revealed a lot to a lot of people. I’ve experienced myself now, I didn’t have any sisters and so there weren’t any dolls in my house but I remember stories about black kids selecting a white doll over a black doll. There were black kids who would not want a black doll for Christmas. I’d heard those stories all my life. So, Kenneth Clark, the great psychologist that he was, was allowed to conduct the experiment with the black doll and the white doll in the courtroom, and a picture was taken of that. I’ve got that picture in my office alongside these plaintiffs. I think that…
Dr. Carla Hayden:
And, judge.
Hon. Richard Gergel:
The use of the Doll Study was very controversial among Marshall’s trial team. No one at that point had ever used such evidence in a federal courtroom, but Marshall was persuaded, Bob Carter, his assistant, pushed this, you know – yes, Kenneth Clark later became one of the most renowned psychologists in the world. Was head of the American Psychological Association, but at this time, he was a 30 something year old young emerging scholar, and he and his wife Doctor Mamie Clark, both PhDs from Columbia, came up with this idea of proving that African American children were traumatized by segregation and that that would produce by their desire for white dolls rather than black dolls.
Marshall said, “I’m an old trial lawyer and if I have someone wants to prove a broken arm, I need an x-ray and if I want to prove a broken child, I want those dolls.” He put one condition on Kenneth Clark. He says, “You’ve got to come to Summerton, and you’ve got to test the children in Summerton because they all claim it doesn’t count because it was done elsewhere.” They secretly went into Summerton, interviewed these children.
The day he was to drive over, they were preparing for trial, Clark had come down on the train with Thurgood Marshall, he said, “Mr. Marshall, when are we going to Summerton?” He said, “I’m not going to Summerton, they’d killed me there.” [Laughter] He thought Marshall was joking, but the next morning, a young guy was there to drive him to Summerton, and Marshall pulled him over and says, “Here’s $50.00. If you get in any trouble, use this.” He says, “That’s the only money NAACP ever paid me.” [Laughter]
Dr. Carla Hayden:
Well, before, and I know that there are people that want to talk with you more about all of this, but before we go, South Carolina, first state to leave the union. All types of historic things, but recently opened up a wonderful museum.
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
Absolutely. You know, South Carolina, the first chapter of this new book I’m writing, I call it, “The Birthplace of Reconstruction.” South Carolina is in fact the birthplace of reconstruction, the first public reading of the Emancipation Proclamation was in Beaufort, South Carolina. I think it’s fitting it properly because that’s where the first shots of the civil war were fired, there at Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter is in the Charleston Harbor. Sumter, South Carolina, where I was born and raised, that’s not where the fort is. It was down at the Charleston Harbor, but is rather across the river, the Cooper River from Gadsden’s Wharf. Gadsden’s Wharf is where some historians say 40% to 50% of all of the Africans that came into this country and were enslaved came through Gadsden’s Wharf.
We started 23 years ago to building this museum. While we were doing some of the research, we found that we were building the museum, where we planned to build the museum across the street from the real Gadsden’s Wharf. We call in archaeologists and we verified the fact that that was Gadsden’s Wharf. So, the International African American Museum that opened in Charleston three weeks ago is built on the site of Gadsden’s Wharf. Now, most of you know a lot about Gadsden’s Wharf, you just don’t know it. You’ve seen this yellow flag with that snake curled on it. That’s the Gadsden’s flag, and that’s the guy that owned Gadsden’s Wharf, that was his flag.
That flag has now become something that it was never intended to be by this family. Today, this museum is getting great reviews simply because it has, as a part of it, you can go into this museum and you can sit in this room, if you are among the 90% of African Americans who can trace at least one of your parents back to Charleston, you will be able to find out which boat they came over on and when. This is a great museum that I am very, very proud of. It was tough to get built because not everybody was enamored with the fact that there should be a museum dealing with the issue of slavery.
Hon. Richard Gergel:
It would not have happened, but for Jim Clyburn.
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
Yes. [Applause]
Dr. Carla Hayden:
And judge…
Cong. Jim Clyburn
Thank you.
Dr. Carla Hayden:
And judge as we leave, there’s another person who would have been here tonight who wrote a letter to you that I think would be fitting that you talk about another congressman.
Hon. Richard Gergel:
Yes. Shortly after my book came out, Congressman Elijah Cummings wrote me a letter.
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
Yes, right.
Hon. Richard Gergel:
He told me that his mother and dad were from Summerton and had left Summerton because of Jim Crow and it brought him – and the children were born in Baltimore and raised there to get away from the stifling life of Jim Crow. That he had picked up my book and read it and was so excited because he found out that many of the plaintiffs were his own people. Jim and I were at a program with you, Doctor Hayden, and we said, “Let’s do a program with three of us plus Elijah Cummings.” You said, “I’m in,” but tragically…
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
She had to be from Baltimore. [Laughter]
Hon. Richard Gergel:
Yes. [Laughter] Tragically, Congressman Cummings, we lost him in October of that year. He had agreed and we were going to do it, so I think we ought to all remember this event tonight in honor of Congressman Cummings.[Applause]
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
Let me say this about, if I may add, Elijah Cummings’ funeral was on the day at the same hour of the groundbreaking for this museum. The same day, same hour. If you remember the day before he had, his body was in state over in the Statuary Hall, so I couldn’t go to the funeral. I called his wife to tell her that I could not get to the funeral because we were having the groundbreaking and I had to be there for that.
What I did not tell her that that same family, Elijah Cummings’ great grandfather was a man named Scipio Rhame who was freed and registered to vote in 1868. I used Cumming’s funeral and Scipio Rhame as the foundation upon which to carry all of my arguments that this museum had to be built because it needed to tell the story of the Scipio Rhames of the world, and how it gave birth to the Elijah Cummings of the world.[Applause]
Dr. Carla Hayden:
Thank you both.
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
Thank you.
Dr. Carla Hayden:
I thank all of you and thank you, President Truman.
Rep. Jim Clyburn:
Absolutely.
Hon. Richard Gergel:
Thank you. Absolutely.[Applause]
Alex Burden:
That concludes our opening night for the Truman Civil Rights Symposium. Thank you all for joining us. We begin again tomorrow morning, 9:00 o’clock at George Washington University in the Jack Morton Auditorium. We have three incredible panels. There are programs scattered around this auditorium. Take one with you. Join us tomorrow in person or live stream. We have a huge event tomorrow night at the National Archives. Very exciting news with President Biden coming to deliver keynote remarks. Excited about that. Excited to have you here and excited to have this story told. Thank you all for your participation tonight. Have a good night. Get home safely.[Applause]
– End of Recording –
