Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Truman

“YOU CAN’T CURE A MORAL PROBLEM BY IGNORING IT.”  – President Harry S. Truman

Today marks the 212th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, remembered for his leadership through the Civil War and our nation’s greatest moral and political crises.

But February 12 marks another important day in American history. This is a difficult and mostly forgotten story, but one we feel certain President Truman would ask us to remember. It changed the course of American history. It changed him.

75 years ago today, Sergeant Isaac Woodard – a returning, decorated African American WWII veteran – was removed from a Greyhound bus in Batesburg, South Carolina, after he challenged the bus driver’s disrespectful treatment of him. Woodard, still in uniform, was arrested by the local police chief, Lynwood Shull, and brutally beaten and blinded while in custody.

You can hear it straight from Harry…

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Exclusive Sneak Peek

Step Inside the $26 Million Truman Museum Renovation

Wednesday, February 10 | 6PM CST

The renovation of the Truman Library and creation of the new Truman exhibition is nearing completion. The exhibit and audiovisual installation teams are busy finalizing the state-of-the-art multimedia, hands-on interactives, and cases for never-before-seen documents and artifacts. Read More

Inauguration Day 1949

On this day in 1949, Harry S. Truman delivered his Inaugural Address on the U.S. Capitol’s East Portico. More than 100,000 people were gathered in the Capitol Plaza when he began his 2,272-word address with these words…

“Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, fellow citizens:
I accept with humility the honor which the American people have conferred upon me. I accept it with a resolve to do all that I can for the welfare of this Nation and for the peace of the world.”

“In performing the duties of my office, I need the help and the prayers of every one of you. I ask for your encouragement and for your support. The tasks we face are difficult. We can accomplish them only if we work together.

“Each period of our national history has had its special challenges. Those that confront us now are as momentous as any in the past…”

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A Thanksgiving Promise

“Hunger has no nationality.”

“Abundance should have no nationality, either.”

On November 24, 1948, one day before Thanksgiving, Harry Truman uttered these words in his address to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The FAO, created in 1945, is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Their goal is simple: to provide high-quality food and ensure food security for all.

Truman began the address reflecting on the first Thanksgiving celebration and reminding the audience members of the spirit of the holiday. The spirit, Truman said, “is in the sharing of the harvest, and in a feeling of warm friendship and goodwill for others less fortunate.” Read More

WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: Prisoners of War
September 4, 1945

To Private Luther D. Bass and the hundreds of other Allied survivors of Tokyo POW Camp #8B, time must have seemed like it slowed to a crawl in early September 1945. Bass and many of his fellow prisoners of war had been captives of the Japanese for over three years, suffering hunger and forced labor. Now the war was over and they had been evacuated to the town of Onahoma to await liberation. Yet it would take several days for American forces to reach Onahoma. How had Bass survived his captivity, and how would he and his fellow POWs endure their anxious wait for liberation? Read More

WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: The Formal Surrender of Japan
September 2, 1945

It is Sunday, September 2. Some 280 Allied warships and thousands of troops are staged in Tokyo Bay. On the deck of one vessel, the battleship USS Missouri, General Douglas MacArthur and 50 other Allied leaders are assembled. It is not a battle they have prepared for, however, but a brief ceremony. The men aboard the Missouri are about to witness Japan’s formal surrender. Read More

WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: Japan Surrenders
President Truman’s News Conference
August 14, 1945

THE PRESIDENT. [reading]: I have received this afternoon a message from the Japanese Government–

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WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: The Bombing of Nagasaki
August 9, 1945

Visitors to the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum can view a unique artifact that speaks to the revolutionary power and danger of the weapon that destroyed Nagasaki and helped end World War II.
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WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: The Bombing of Hiroshima
August 6, 1945

At 8:15 AM on August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber opened its bay doors over the Japanese city of Hiroshima and released a solitary bomb. Forty-four seconds later, it exploded 1,900 feet above the city. This single explosion brought the Second World War into its final phase and revealed to the world a new and devastating weapon.
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WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: The Potsdam Declaration
July 26, 1945

By July 1945, Japan was defeated nearly everywhere except in the hearts and minds of the Japanese. Even as the Japanese Empire crumbled and the suffering Japanese prepared for invasion, military leaders reminded their people that national honor prohibited surrender to the Allies.
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