Executive Order 9981

Executive Order 9981, executive order issued on July 26, 1948, by U.S. Pres. Harry S. Truman that abolished racial segregation in the U.S. armed forces.

Beginning with the initial skirmishes of the American Revolution, African Americans had played an important role in the armed forces of the United States. A slave identified as Prince Easterbrooks was one of the first casualties at the Battle of Concord, and thousands of African Americans, both free and enslaved, fought with distinction alongside their white counterparts throughout that war. The level of integration in the Continental Army, however, would not be duplicated in the U.S. military until the 1950s.

The path to official integration began with the signing of Executive Order 8802 by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in June 1941. It signaled the end of racial discrimination in the U.S. defense industry, but the armed forces generally hewed to a policy of segregation throughout the duration of World War II. The efforts of the National Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and civil rights leaders such as A. Philip Randolph spurred President Truman to extend the protections afforded to African Americans in the civilian Department of Defense to the uniformed military. In April 1946 a review board chaired by Gen. Alvan Gillem, Jr., advised that the U.S. Army’s policy should be to “eliminate, at the earliest practicable moment, any special consideration based on race.” While the Gillem Board did not specifically endorse integration, it did note that the army had already desegregated its hospitals because of the unnecessary cost and inefficiency created by the maintenance of separate facilities for white and black patients.

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Later in 1946 Truman convened the President’s Committee on Civil Rights. That group’s landmark report, To Secure These Rights, was published in October 1947. It proposed “to end immediately all discrimination and segregation based on race, color, creed, or national origin, in the organization and activities of all branches of the Armed Services.” Facing resistance from Southern senators, Truman circumvented a threatened Senate filibuster by issuing Executive Order 9981 in July 1948, integrating the armed forces and establishing the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, an advisory body tasked with determining the best possible way to implement the new policy.

The initial response to the order was mixed. The U.S. Navy, which had maintained some degree of integration throughout its history, was the most accommodating branch of service—although African Americans remained primarily concentrated in the separate Steward’s Branch in the short term. The Marine Corps (the smallest of the armed services) and the Air Force (the youngest) responded to integration as a matter of efficiency. The U.S. Army flatly opposed the change, with Secretary of the Army Kenneth Royall going so far as to state in 1949 that the army “was not an instrument for social evolution.” Nevertheless, the President’s Committee pressed the army to accept integration. Ultimately, losses in the Korean War rendered the discussion moot, as under-strength white units were forced to accept black recruits to maintain combat effectiveness. In October 1953 the army announced that it had integrated more than 90 percent of black troops in its ranks.