75th Anniversary of Desegregation of the US Armed Forces
Today is the 75th anniversary of Harry Truman’s order to desegregate the US Armed Forces.
This was, at that time, a cataclysmic event in American social history, one previously unimaginable, given the close—indeed intimate—conditions under which members of the military lived. The magnitude of this change was driven home to me almost exactly 60 years ago when I began basic training as an Army draftee at Ft. Leonard Wood MO. I was assigned a platoon leader named Sgt. Cleveland, a towering Black man with a commanding voice and a gently commanding manner.
As I was back then already a committed liberal supporter of civil rights, I loved watching my white Southern fellow Company members muttering under their breath as they were given orders by this impressive Black man—orders they had to follow.
At that time, the military was the ONLY portion of American society where African-Americans enjoyed a substantial degree of equality, with the serviceman’s RANK the one true determinant of his/her authority. Indeed, at this time—1962—the Army had its first Black General, Benjamin O. Davis. That I remember his name sixty years on speaks to the degree of my amazement at this nearly unique situation in America. (The openly racist US Navy would not have its first Black Lieutenant
for many years.)
It is hard today to understand how in 1948–several years after the end of WW II—the US Armed Forces were still segregated into different units based on RACE. But they were. This is what made Truman’s unilateral action so brave—and so risky.
Harry Truman was heading into a very difficult—many thought impossible—campaign to be elected President after he had succeeded to the presidency upon FDR’s death in 1945. He was facing opposition within the Democratic Party—still then largely in the grasp of white pro-segregationist Southerners in Congress. Even FDR had been unwilling to take such a step for fear of angering the large segregationist wing of the Party.
Yet Truman—a Missourian and the grandson of slave owners—took this bold step. It led directly to the formation of the States Rights Party (the “Dixiecrats”) that splintered the formerly “Solid South,”whose votes had traditionally underpinned Democratic victories in Presidential races. This splinter group, under Strom Thurmond, ended up taking five Southern states in the November election.
Just to make things worse for Truman, the left wing of the Party had the option of voting for the Progressive Party under former FDR VP Henry Wallace. While Wallace ended up taking only 2.4% of the total vote, he did get meaningful chunks of the popular vote in a number of key states.
Although Wallace didn’t carry any states, his candidacy did cut into the normal Democratic margin in key Northern states in a very tight 1948 race. All in all, most observers prior to the voting thought that Truman was a certain loser to Republican Tom Dewey, the popular NY Governor. Indeed in the fall election Truman narrowly lost traditionally Democratic NY’s Electoral Votes (then 45 to today’s 27!) to Dewey, after Wallace peeled off 8% of the vote in NY State.
The story of how Truman pulled off his victory against almost insuperable odds in 1948 makes for fascinating reading in one of the best books ever written on practical American politics, with the ironic title of “Dewey Wins.” It reads more like a thriller, even though one knows the basic outcome.
Back in 1948, the idea that, 75 years later, racial issues would still be key determinants of our politics would have been—and should have been—unthinkable. But sadly it is the reality, with Donald Trump having resurrected those issues in barely disguised form—as a key element of his appeal to angry whites. Fortunately those “angry whites” do NOT form a majority, but sadly a large minority. Fortunately the number of those racist voters is shrinking for both demographic and ideological reasons.
Should Donald Trump be nominated by the GOP, as appears likely despite multiple indictments, the Republicans will learn they are playing a losing hand. My strong conviction re this prediction stems from the near-unanimous polling that shows voters 18-29 dividing 68/32 in favor of the Democrats. Roughly 16,000,000 Americans will have turned 18 between 2020 and November 2024. Even though fewer than 50% of this demo are likely to actually turn up to vote, they are almost certain to add meaningfully to the 7,000,000 vote-margin enjoyed by Biden in 2020.
This is true if Trump is the ‘24 GOP nominee but it is also true if he isn’t, given the permanent damage Trump has done to the Republican brand AND the large chunk of voters who would show up for Trump but stay home if the party has rejected their Tin God. The 2024 election will, IMHO, demonstrate the wisdom of the title of Rick Wilson’s brilliant 2017 book “Everything Trump Touches Dies.”
Most of my left-leaning friends call me “an optimist.” I respond by saying that, absent a meaningfully negative future event for Biden and/or the Democratic Party, the numbers speak volumes. While it is commonplace to observe that multiple indictments have NOT so far damaged Trump’s brand, that is ONLY true among REPUBLICANS. These legal cases only strengthen the determination of Democrats to show up and VOTE if Trump is the GOP nominee next year.
As for Independents, it is inconceivable that credible allegations of criminality against Trump will increase their likelihood of voting for DJT. So it is irrelevant, from an electoral standpoint, that the MAGA-wing of the GOP is even more stridently in thrall to Orange Man.
Thus the GOP finds itself between, in the classic formulation, a rock and a hard place. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of guys.
