Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks - Hardcover

Gardner, Adjunct Professor Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809324253 ISBN 13: 9780809324255

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002

Synopsis

Given his background, President Truman was an unlikely champion of civil rights. Where he grew up the border state of Missouri segregation was accepted and largely unquestioned. Both his maternal and paternal grandparents had owned slaves, and his mother, victimized by Yankee forces, railed against Abraham Lincoln for the remainder of her ninety-four years. When Truman assumed the presidency on April 12, 1945, Michael R. Gardner points out, Washington, DC, in many ways resembled Cape Town, South Africa, under apartheid rule circa 1985.

 

Truman’s background notwithstanding, Gardner shows that it was Harry Truman not Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, or John F. Kennedy who energized the modern civil rights movement, a movement that basically had stalled since Abraham Lincoln had freed the slaves. Gardner recounts Truman’s public and private actions regarding black Americans. He analyzes speeches, private conversations with colleagues, the executive orders that shattered federal segregation policies, and the appointments of like-minded civil rights activists to important positions. Among those appointments was the first black federal judge in the continental United States.

            

One of Gardner’s essential and provocative points is that the Frederick Moore Vinson Supreme Court a court significantly shaped by Truman provided the legal basis for the nationwide integration that Truman could not get through the Congress. Challenging the myth that the civil rights movement began with Brown v. Board of Education under Chief Justice Earl Warren, Gardner contends that the life-altering civil rights rulings by the Vinson Court provided the necessary legal framework for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.

 

Gardner characterizes Truman’s evolution from a man who grew up in a racist household into a president willing to put his political career at mortal risk by actively supporting the interests of black Americans.

About this title

About the Author:

Michael R. Gardner is a communications policy attorney in Washington, D.C. He also serves as the pro bono chairman of the United States Telecommunications Training Institute, a nonprofit international training initiative he founded in 1982 while serving as the U.S. ambassador to the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. A graduate of the College at Georgetown University and of the Georgetown University Law School, Gardner has served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and has also served on four presidential commissions under Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush senior.

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From the Forewords:

“Harry Truman’s convictions, commitment, and courage are admirably recounted by Michael Gardner. He describes the actions that flowed from them. He recalls long overlooked actions taken by the Department of Justice at Truman’s direction. He pointedly contrasts Truman’s courage with the timidity of his two immediate successors and reminds us of the belated conversion of Lyndon Johnson to the course Truman had advocated years earlier. . . .Truman had the courage. He took the risks. All of us are indebted to him.” —George M. Elsey, administrative assistant to President Truman, from his Foreword

“Harry Truman and Civil Rights presents a riveting account of the little-known, yet pivotal role President Harry Truman played in the cause for civil rights. . . . President Truman’s bravery and dogged determination opened many doors and forever changed the course of history. This book is a tribute to the visionary courage displayed by this statesman who began laying the foundation to right the horrific injustices that prevailed against people of color during his time.” —Kweisi Mfume, President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, from his Foreword

About this edition

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0809324253
• ISBN 13: 9780809324255
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 276