View source for President's Committee on Civil Rights

{{Short description|United States Committee on the issue of Civil Rights}}
{{distinguish|United States Commission on Civil Rights}}
{{Infobox U.S. Presidential Commission
| name                 = 
| longtitle            = 
| shorttitle           = 
| othershorttitles     = 
| depiction            = 
| depictioncaption     = Front page of the ''[[Chicago Defender]]'' newspaper announcing desegregation of the [[United States Armed Forces]]
| depictionalt         = Front page of a newspaper. The top headline reads "President Truman wipes out segregation in armed forces"
| status               = 
| establishedpresident = Harry Truman
| establisheddate      = December 5, [[1946]]
| executiveorder       = 9808, 9980, [[Executive Order 9981|9981]]
| disbandeddate        = December 1947
| chairperson          = [[Charles Edward Wilson (businessman)|Charles Edward Wilson]]
| othermembers         = [[Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander|Sadie T. Alexander]] <br /> [[James B. Carey]] <br /> [[John Sloan Dickey]] <br /> [[Morris Ernst]] <br /> [[Roland B. Gittelsohn]] <br /> [[Frank Porter Graham]] <br /> [[Francis J. Haas]] <br /> [[Charles Luckman]] <br /> [[Francis P. Matthews]] <br /> [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.]] <br /> [[Henry Knox Sherrill]] <br /> [[Boris Shishkin]] <br /> [[Dorothy Rogers Tilly]] <br /> [[Channing Heggie Tobias]]
| purpose              = Investigate the status of [[civil rights]] in the country and propose measures to strengthen and protect them
| policy_areas         = [[Civil rights in the United States|Civil rights]]
| summary              = 
* Establish a permanent Civil Rights Commission, Joint Congressional Committee on Civil Rights, and a Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice
* Develop federal protection from [[lynching]]
* Establish a permanent fair employment practice commission
* Abolish [[poll taxes]]
* Other measures
}}

The '''President's Committee on Civil Rights''' was a United States [[Presidential Commission (United States)|presidential commission]] established by [[President of the United States|President]] [[Harry Truman]] in 1946. The committee was created by Executive Order 9808 on December 5, 1946, and instructed to investigate the status of [[civil rights]] in the country and propose measures to strengthen and protect them.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-08-15|title=Executive Orders Disposition Tables|url=https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/1946.html|access-date=2021-02-03|website=National Archives|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Executive Order 9808—Establishing the President's Committee on Civil Rights {{!}} The American Presidency Project|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-9808-establishing-the-presidents-committee-civil-rights|access-date=2021-02-03|website=www.presidency.ucsb.edu}}</ref> The committee submitted the report of its findings, entitled ''To Secure These Rights,'' to President Truman in December 1947,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Records of the President's Committee on Civil Rights Record Group 220 {{!}} Harry S. Truman|url=https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/federal-record/records-presidents-committee-civil-rights-record-group-220|access-date=2021-02-03|website=www.trumanlibrary.gov}}</ref> and Truman proposed comprehensive civil rights legislation to Congress, and ordered antidiscrimination and desegregation throughout the government and armed forces.

The committee included business, labor, and religious leaders, in addition to scholars.

==History==
The committee was charged with examining the condition of [[civil rights]] in the United States, producing a written report of their findings, and submitting recommendations on improving civil rights in the United States. In December 1947, the committee produced a 178-page report entitled ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights''. In the report, it proposed to establish a permanent Civil Rights Commission, Joint Congressional Committee on Civil Rights, and a Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice; to develop federal protection from [[Lynching in the United States|lynching]]; a permanent fair employment practice commission; to abolish [[Poll taxes in the United States|poll taxes]]; and urged other measures.<ref>President's Committee on Civil Rights. ''To Secure These Rights'' (2004).</ref> Furthermore, the report raised the distinct possibility that the [[UN Charter]] from 1945 could also be used as a source of law to fight persistent racial discrimination in the US.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geschichte-menschenrechte.de/schluesseltexte/william-h-fitzpatricks-editorials-on-human-rights-1949/  |title=William H. Fitzpatrick's Editorials on Human Rights (1949) |author=Christopher N.J.Roberts  |publisher=Quellen zur Geschichte der Menschenrechte |access-date=November 4, 2017 }}</ref> 
  
On July 26, 1948, President Truman advanced the recommendations of the report by signing Executive Order 9980 and [[Executive Order 9981]]. Executive Order 9980 ordered the [[Desegregation in the United States|desegregation]] of the federal work force and Executive Order 9981 ordered the desegregation of the [[Military of the United States|armed services]]{{ref|executive_orders}}. He also sent a special message to [[United States Congress|Congress]] on February 2, 1948, to implement the recommendations of the President's Committee on Civil Rights.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=1380&st=&st1= "Special Message to the Congress on Civil Rights, Public Papers of the Presidents, Harry S. Truman, 1945-1953"] on February 2, 1948, from the Truman Presidential Museum & Library, retrieved January 21, 2006</ref>

The President's Committee on Civil Rights report also paved way for African-American diplomats to break into previously white-dominated positions. Under President Truman, [[Edward Richard Dudley|Edward R. Dudley]] would become the first African American given an ambassadorship, in part due to the findings of race-relations from the committee. However, these moves were largely done due to a harming of foreign relations due to the United States' race problem. Even with the committee's findings, President Truman had trouble acting on his own research, due to domestic backlash.<ref>Krenn, Michael. The History of United States Cultural Diplomacy, 1770 to Present Day. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.</ref>

==Membership==
The committee was composed of 15 members:<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/hstpaper/pccr.htm "Agency History, Records of the President's Committee on Civil Rights Record Group 220"] from the Truman Presidential Museum & Library, retrieved January 23, 2006</ref>
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
*[[Charles Edward Wilson (businessman)|Charles Edward Wilson]] (Chairman)
*[[Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander|Sadie T. Alexander]]
*[[James B. Carey]]
*[[John Sloan Dickey]]
*[[Morris Ernst]]
*[[Roland B. Gittelsohn]]
*[[Frank Porter Graham]]
*[[Francis J. Haas]]
*[[Charles Luckman]]
*[[Francis P. Matthews]]
*[[Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.]]
*[[Henry Knox Sherrill]]
*[[Boris Shishkin]]
*[[Dorothy Rogers Tilly]]
*[[Channing Heggie Tobias]]
{{div col end}}

==Publication==
*President's Committee on Civil Rights. ''To Secure These Rights: The Report of the President's Committee on Civil Rights''. Washington: GPO, 1947.

==See also==
* [[Executive Order 8802]], signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on July 25, 1941, to prohibit ethnic or racial discrimination in the nation's defense industry
* [[National Emergency Committee Against Mob Violence]]
{{Portal bar|Civil Rights Movement}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Notes===
#{{note|executive orders}}[https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/1948.html "Executive Order 9980, Regulations Governing Fair Employment Practices Within the Federal Establishment,"] and [https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/1948.html "Executive Order 9981, Establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, Harry S Truman"] from Federal Register, retrieved January 23, 2006. For more details on the desegregation of the armed forces see, [http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/desegregation/large/index.php?action=chronology "Truman Library: Desegregation of the Armed Forces Online Research File"] from the Truman Presidential Museum & Library, retrieved May 4, 2010.

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|last1=Berman|first1=William C.|title=The Politics of Civil Rights in the Truman Administration|date=1970|publisher=Ohio State University Press|isbn=9780814201428|url=https://archive.org/details/politicsofcivilr0000berm|url-access=registration}}
*{{cite book|last1=Gardner|first1=Michael R.|title=Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks|date=2002|publisher=Southern Illinois University Press|isbn=9780809388967|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N3Ypq7AqtxQC}}
*{{cite book|last1=Hamby|first1=Alonzo L.|author-link=Alonzo Hamby|title=Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism|date=1973|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231083447|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/beyondnewdealhar0000hamb_r1t6}}
*{{cite book|last1=McCoy|first1=Donald R.|last2=Ruetten|first2=Richard T.|title=Quest and Response: Minority Rights and the Truman Administration|date=1973|publisher=University Press of Kansas|isbn=9780700600991|url=https://archive.org/details/questresponsemin0000mcco}}
*{{cite book|last1=Vaughan|first1=Philip H.|title=The Truman Administration's Legacy for Black America|date=1976|publisher=Mojave Books|isbn=9780878810475|url=https://archive.org/details/trumanadministra00vaug}}

==External links==
*''[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/civilrights/srights1.htm To Secure These Rights: The Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights]'' Full text of document available from the [http://www.trumanlibrary.org/civilrights/srights1.htm Truman Presidential Museum & Library]
* Christopher N.J. Roberts: [http://www.geschichte-menschenrechte.de/schluesseltexte/william-h-fitzpatricks-editorials-on-human-rights-1949/ William H. Fitzpatrick’s Editorials on Human Rights (1949)], published by Arbeitskreis Menschenrechte im 20. Jahrhundert, published at "Quellen zur Geschichte der Menschenrechte"

{{Harry S. Truman}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:African-American history between emancipation and the civil rights movement]]
[[Category:African-American history of the United States military]]
[[Category:Civil rights movement]]
[[Category:Establishments by United States executive order]]
[[Category:History of civil rights in the United States]]
[[Category:Presidency of Harry S. Truman]]
[[Category:United States presidential commissions|Civil Rights, President's Committee on]]