Executive Order 9981

Executive Order 9981 was an executive order issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman. It abolished racial discrimination in the United States Armed Forces and eventually led to the end of segregation in the services.

Blacks in the military worked under different rules that delayed their entry into combat. They had to wait 3 years before they could begin combat training while a white American would begin training within months of being qualified. The Air Corps was deliberately delaying the training of African Americans even though the Air Corps needed more manpower (Survey and Recommendations). There was a need for desegregation in the military.

In an Army survey conducted among 250 white officers and sergeants that had a colored platoon assigned to their company the following results were found: 77% of both officers and sergeants said they had become more favorable towards colored soldiers after having a colored platoon assigned to their company, (no cases were found where someone said their attitude towards them had turned less favorable), 84% of officers and 81% of sergeants thought the colored soldiers had performed very well in combat, only 5% of officers and 4% of sergeants thought that colored infantry soldiers weren’t as good as white infantry soldiers, and 73% of officers and 60% of sergeants thought the colored soldiers and white soldiers got along together very well (Opinions about Negro Infantry). According to this particular survey there is no reasonable means for segregation in the armed forces.

In 1947, A. Philip Randolph, along with colleague Grant Reynolds, renewed efforts to end discrimination in the armed services, forming the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service and Training, later renamed the League for Non-Violent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation.

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