Howard & Virginia Bennett Forum on the Presidency

HOWAR D AN D VI RG I N IA B E N N ETT FOR U M ON TH E PR ESI DE NCY

The Truman Library Institute Proudly Presents

TRUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS A 75T H A N N I V E R S A RY T R U M A N L E G ACY E V E N T

Dear Friends, I am tremendously proud to share the 2023 Bennett Forum on the Presidency with you.

Earlier this year, for three days in Washington, D.C.—July 26-28, 2023— the nation celebrated its first civil rights president, Harry S. Truman, at the Truman Civil Rights Symposium. This historic gathering was organized by the Truman Library Institute and made possible by generous and visionary volunteer leaders, as well as our lead sponsors, Boeing and CPKC. I continue to receive notes of thanks and congratulations for a national commemoration worthy of a major milestone in America’s story: Truman’s executive orders, issued on July 26, 1948, ending 172 years of racial segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces and federal workforce.

We knew that the Symposium was big—it was easily the most ambitious program in the Institute’s history. But we could not have predicted the ultimate outpouring of support for and interest in the Truman Civil Rights Symposium.

Two years in the planning, the Symposium comprised six events in four venues over three days in our nation’s capital. More than 520 friends attended the live events, which featured 49 presenters, moderators and panelists. To date, more than a quarter-million people have watched the resulting recordings, made available by the Truman Library Institute, C-SPAN, The White House, and other news outlets that covered the series.

Of course, numbers cannot convey the spirit of the Symposium—the deeply personal stories of military leaders, veterans and service members; the unexpected moments of reckoning, remembrance and honor; and the unforgettable opportunity to share an evening with America’s 46th president, Joe Biden. During his keynote address, President Biden echoed our familiar refrain: This matters. History matters. Harry Truman’s legacy— his integrity and all he stood for—matters.

And that brings us to this evening, and another opportunity to explore these American stories that are essential to our unity as a nation.

To paraphrase Congressman Clyburn, who spoke at the Symposium’s keynote event: Harry Truman helped shape a more perfect union. Now, it’s up to us to carry the work forward.

Thank you for your continued support as we uphold and advance the legacy of President Harry S. Truman.

Above: Alex Burden introduces the Symposium’s opening event at the Library of Congress on July 26, 2023.

Alex Burden Executive Director

TH E HOWAR D AN D VI RG I N IA B E N N ETT FOR U M ON TH E PR E S I DE NCY

TRUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS T H U R S D AY, N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 2 3 U N I T Y T E M P L E O N T H E P L A Z A | K A N S A S C I T Y, M I S S O U R I

Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of President Truman’s Executive Order to Desegregate the U.S. Armed Forces

M O D E R ATO R

ROB I N G IVHAN PA N E L I S T S

B R IG. G E N. TE R R E NCE A. ADAM S TH E HON. R ICHAR D G E RG E L DR. ADR IAN E LE NTZ-S M ITH

Moderator ROBIN GIVHAN Robin Givhan is senior critic-at-large for the Washington Post.

She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Princeton University and a Master’s of Science in journalism from the University of Michigan. In 1995, she arrived at the Washington Post where she began covering the news, trends and business of the international fashion industry. She also wrote a weekly culture column. In 2009, she began covering Michelle Obama and the cultural and social shifts stirred by the first African American family in the White House. From 2010-2012, she was special correspondent for style and culture at Newsweek Daily Beast. She returned to the Post in 2014 as fashion critic. In 2020, she was appointed senior critic-at-large with a focus on politics, race and the arts.

Givhan’s work has appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Vogue Italia, British Vogue, Essence, Elle UK, New York and the New Yorker. She has contributed to several books including Runway Madness, No Sweat: Fashion, Free Trade and the Rights of Garment Workers, and Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections

by Women Writers. She is the author, along with the Washington Post photo staff, of Michelle: Her First Year as First Lady. Her first solo book, The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History, was published in March 2015. It is a cultural history of the 1973 Franco-American runway extravaganza that altered the trajectory of the fashion industry.

In 2006, she won the Pulitzer Prize in criticism for her fashion coverage. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Panelists BRIGADIER GENERAL TERRENCE A. ADAMS Brigadier General Terrence A. Adams is the Deputy Principal Cyber Advisor (DPCA) to the Secretary of Defense and Senior Military Advisor for Cyber Policy. After serving in the Army for six years, he entered the Air Force through the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Alabama State University. He commanded six times at the squadron, group, and wing levels, three of these commands while deployed. Most recently, he served as Commander 628th Air Base Wing, and Commander of Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina. Prior to his current position, the general was the Director, Cyberspace Operations and Warfighter Communications at U.S. Air Force Headquarters in the Pentagon.

THE HONORABLE RICHARD GERGEL Richard Mark Gergel is a U.S. District Judge for the District of South Carolina. His book, Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring, was the basis for the PBS American Experience documentary, The Blinding of Isaac Woodard.

He currently presides in the same courthouse where Judge Waring heard arguments from President Truman’s Justice Department against a police officer who beat and blinded Sgt. Isaac Woodard, a decorated Black World War II veteran. Judge Gergel was nominated to the U.S. District Court bench by President Barack Obama and was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate in August 2010.

ADRIANE LENTZ-SMITH, PH.D. Dr. Adriane Lentz-Smith is an Associate Professor of History and African American studies at Duke University and a Senior Fellow in Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics. She is the author of Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I (2009). She appeared in the PBS American Experience documentary Voice of Freedom and has served as an historical consultant for the BBC HistoryExtra podcast series on the civil rights movement. She has published articles on modern U.S. history and Black struggles for civil and human rights in Southern Cultures, Modern American History, and American Quarterly.

MORE TO EXPLORE President Truman’s Civil Rights Legacy

TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS A new traveling exhibit from the Truman Library Institute shares the story of Truman’s transformative journey from Southern sympathizer to champion for racial justice—from the blinding of WWII veteran Isaac Woodward to Truman’s historic address to the NAACP, to the watershed executive orders that ended Jim Crow in the federal workforce and desegregated the U.S. Armed Forces. The traveling exhibit is now showing at The Box Gallery in the Commerce Bank Building and will be available to rent beginning April 1, 2024. Learn more at TrumanLibraryInstitute.org/events.

ALL NEW TRU See the powerful, all-new permanent exhibition at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, a stop on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail. Explore the digital archives at TrumanLibrary.gov.

And step into the award-winning White House Decision Center for a team-building experience like no other. Set in a recreated West Wing, participants step into the roles of President Truman and his advisors to tackle some of the greatest challenges faced by any world leader, including addressing systemic racism and racial violence against WWII veterans. Learn more at TrumanLibraryInstitute.org.

SYMPOSIUM PLAYLIST Experience the full Truman Civil Rights Symposium on our YouTube channel, including the Opening Event at the Library of Congress; the Keynote Event featuring President Biden; and general sessions exploring the Black American experience in the U.S. Armed Forces (from the Revolutionary War forward), the impact and legacy of Executive Order 9981, and the future of inclusion. General C.Q. Brown, Jr., offers the Symposium’s closing remarks.

Visit TrumanLibraryInstitute.org/civil-rights-symposium for photo albums, videos, program transcripts, an interactive timeline, archival resources, articles, and more.

TRUMAN CIVIL RIGHTS TIMELINE

SCAN TO VIEW ONLINE INTERACTIVE TIMELINE

1939-1945

1947

September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945 Of the 2.5 million African American men who register for the draft through December 31, 1945, more than one million, along with thousands of African American women, serve with distinction in World War II in all branches of service and in all Theaters of Operation.

June 29 Truman becomes the first President to address the NAACP, also marking the first time a president addresses a Civil Rights organization.

He delivers the strongest statements heard on Civil Rights since Abraham Lincoln.

1946 December 5 Truman issues Executive Order 9808 creating a firstof-its-kind Committee on Civil Rights to propose measures to strengthen and protect the Civil Rights of the American people.

1948 1947

1946 February 12 Isaac Woodard, an African American WWII veteran, is brutally attacked and blinded hours after being honorably discharged. When Truman learns of this atrocity, and others, he vows, “I shall fight to end evils like this.”

October 29 The President’s Committee on Civil Rights issues their landmark report, To Secure These Rights. The Committee calls for equal voting rights, the creation of a Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to combat lynching and other assaults on Black lives and freedoms, equal employment, and fair housing laws.

February 2 President Truman calls for a series of legislative proposals based on the findings in To Secure These Rights in the first-ever, comprehensive presidential message on Civil Rights delivered to Congress.

President Harry S. Truman created a first-of-its-kind Committee on Civil Rights, endorsed their landmark report, adopted their recommendations in his Civil Rights platform, and ultimately desegregated the military and federal workforce through Executive Order. When America desperately needed a leader to advance its promise of freedom, Truman stepped forward. His courageous leadership in the 1940s paved the way for Civil Rights reform in the 1960s, and stands today as the benchmark for dreams yet deferred.

1950

1948 October 29 In the last days of the election, Truman makes a campaign appearance in Harlem. It is the first time a U.S. president visits the symbolic capital of Black America.

May 22 The President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services (Fahy Committee), established as part of E.O. 9981, submits its final report, Freedom to Serve.

1954 October 30 The Armed Services announces integration of all of its branches after some branches resisted and delayed implementation of E.O. 9981.

1949

1948 July 26 Truman signs Executive Order 9981, which desegregates the U.S. Armed Forces, and Executive Order 9980, which prohibits race-based employment discrimination in the federal government.

January 12 In the Fahy Committee’s first meeting with President Truman and the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Defense, Truman says, “I want concrete results—that’s what I’m after—not publicity on it.” The Committee takes him literally, not only investigating conditions but also working quietly and diligently with the Army, Navy, and Air Force to bring about desired changes.

1954 May 17 The enactment of E.0. 9981 paves the way for the Civil Rights movement, including the desegregation of public schools. In Brown vs.

Board of Education, the Supreme Court reviewed a briefing about the successful integration of military units before declaring that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, noting there had been no loss of efficiency and outstanding morale in integrated units.

TRUMAN LIBRARY INSTITUTE OUR VISION People are inspired, enriched and empowered through the many resources of the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum.

OUR MISSION To bring the life and legacy of Harry S. Truman to bear on current and future generations through the understanding of history, the presidency, domestic and foreign policy, and citizenship.

TH E HOWAR D & VI RG I N IA B E N N ETT FOR U M ON TH E PR E S I D E NCY Established in 2006 by Mary and Michael Johnston, The Howard & Virginia Bennett Forum on the Presidency commemorates Howard Bennett’s role in the founding of the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum while helping tell the complex story of our nation’s highest office, the American presidency.

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