TRU Blog

TRU Blog

Truman and Women’s Rights | March 1, 2021

The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act

Of the many decisions, acts, policies and executive orders signed by former President Harry S. Truman, one of the most famous remains his decision to desegregate the military. Truman’s Executive Order 9981 (July 26, 1948) figures prominently in ongoing discussions on civil rights and equality today.

Yet while Executive Order 9981 is perhaps one of Truman’s most progressive pieces of legislation, his decision to sign the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act in the same year suggests Truman recognized a need for even more equalizing change in the United States military.   Read More

Truman and Women’s Rights

Camp David (Or Truman’s Shangri-La) | February 16, 2021

HISTORIC PHOTOS OF CAMP DAVID

Nestled in the Catoctin Mountain Park in Frederick County, Maryland, is Camp David, a retreat for use by the President of the United States.

Officially a U.S. Navy installation, the facility was originally built by the Works Progress Administration as a camp for government employees, opening in 1938. President Franklin D. Roosevelt took it over and named it “Shangri-La,” for the mountain kingdom in Lost Horizon, the 1933 novel by James Hilton. It was later renamed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in honor of his then-five-year-old grandson, Dwight David Eisenhower II.

Over the years, American presidents and their families have used it for a variety of reasons. Some spent weekends there relaxing with their families. Others have used it to study, write, or confer with top advisers. A few have used it to conduct global diplomacy and forge historic peace agreements. During his first visit to Camp David, President Biden played Mario Kart with his granddaughter Naomi (and won!).  Read More

Camp David (Or Truman’s Shangri-La)

The Daughters of Yalta | February 12, 2021

The Daughters of Yalta

Catherine Grace, author

A Distinguished Author Event Celebrating the 136th Birthday of First Lady Bess Wallace Truman

Featuring Catherine Grace Katz
Saturday, February 13 | 2 PM CST

Please join us online for the 2021 Bess Wallace Truman Birthday Celebration featuring Catherine Grace Katz, author of The Daughters of Yalta. Read More

A Lasting Valentine’s Day Gift | February 12, 2021

A Lasting Valentine’s Day Gift

The Perfect Personalized Gift for Your Sweetheart

VALENTINE’S DAY IS SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14
Please Order by Friday, February 12

Profess your love on Valentine’s Day with a custom engraved Valentine’s Day Brick – a unique gift that will last forever. Order by February 12 to receive a downloadable certificate announcing your thoughtful gift. Read More

A Lasting Valentine’s Day Gift

TRU Events – The Long Telegram | February 12, 2021

The Long Telegram

Evan ThomasGeorge Kennan and the Most Influential Cable in American History

Featuring Evan Thomas, in Conversation with Truman Library Director Kurt Graham

Tuesday, February 23 at 5:30 PM CST 

Before the “Cold War,” there was “The Long Telegram.”

75 years ago this month, a Moscow-based U.S. diplomat named George Kennan sent an 8,000-word telegram to President Truman’s State Department. The “problem of how to cope with [the Soviets],” he argued presciently, “is undoubtedly the greatest task our diplomacy has ever faced and probably the greatest it will ever have to face.”

Today, “The Long Telegram” is regarded as a foundational U.S. document, right up there with the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers and George Washington’s Farewell Address. As a sign of its enduring significance, the telegram’s 75th anniversary appears on top-ten lists of historic moments to note in 2021.

What influence did this 19-page cable have in 1946? And how does it continue to inform U.S. policy today? Read More

TRU Events – The Long Telegram

THIS DAY IN HISTORY | February 12, 2021

Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Truman

“YOU CAN’T CURE A MORAL PROBLEM BY IGNORING IT.”  – President Harry S. Truman

 

Today marks the 212th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, remembered for his leadership through the Civil War and our nation’s greatest moral and political crises.

But February 12 marks another important day in American history. This is a difficult and mostly forgotten story, but one we feel certain President Truman would ask us to remember. It changed the course of American history. It changed him.

75 years ago today, Sergeant Isaac Woodard – a returning, decorated African American WWII veteran – was removed from a Greyhound bus in Batesburg, South Carolina, after he challenged the bus driver’s disrespectful treatment of him. Woodard, still in uniform, was arrested by the local police chief, Lynwood Shull, and brutally beaten and blinded while in custody.

You can hear it straight from Harry…

Read More

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Exclusive Sneak Peek | February 10, 2021

Exclusive Sneak Peek

Step Inside the $26 Million Truman Museum Renovation

Wednesday, February 10 | 6PM CST

The renovation of the Truman Library and creation of the new Truman exhibition is nearing completion. The exhibit and audiovisual installation teams are busy finalizing the state-of-the-art multimedia, hands-on interactives, and cases for never-before-seen documents and artifacts. Read More

Exclusive Sneak Peek

TRU History – Inauguration Day 1949 | January 20, 2021

Inauguration Day 1949

On this day in 1949, Harry S. Truman delivered his Inaugural Address on the U.S. Capitol’s East Portico. More than 100,000 people were gathered in the Capitol Plaza when he began his 2,272-word address with these words…

“Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, fellow citizens:
I accept with humility the honor which the American people have conferred upon me. I accept it with a resolve to do all that I can for the welfare of this Nation and for the peace of the world.”

“In performing the duties of my office, I need the help and the prayers of every one of you. I ask for your encouragement and for your support. The tasks we face are difficult. We can accomplish them only if we work together.

“Each period of our national history has had its special challenges. Those that confront us now are as momentous as any in the past…”

Read More

TRU History – Inauguration Day 1949

A Thanksgiving Promise | November 24, 2020

A Thanksgiving Promise

“Hunger has no nationality.”

“Abundance should have no nationality, either.”

On November 24, 1948, one day before Thanksgiving, Harry Truman uttered these words in his address to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The FAO, created in 1945, is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Their goal is simple: to provide high-quality food and ensure food security for all.

Truman began the address reflecting on the first Thanksgiving celebration and reminding the audience members of the spirit of the holiday. The spirit, Truman said, “is in the sharing of the harvest, and in a feeling of warm friendship and goodwill for others less fortunate.” Read More

A Thanksgiving Promise

WWII 75: Marching to Victory | September 4, 2020

WWII highlights from the Truman Library’s archives and collections

Marching to Victory: Prisoners of War
September 4, 1945

To Private Luther D. Bass and the hundreds of other Allied survivors of Tokyo POW Camp #8B, time must have seemed like it slowed to a crawl in early September 1945. Bass and many of his fellow prisoners of war had been captives of the Japanese for over three years, suffering hunger and forced labor. Now the war was over and they had been evacuated to the town of Onahoma to await liberation. Yet it would take several days for American forces to reach Onahoma. How had Bass survived his captivity, and how would he and his fellow POWs endure their anxious wait for liberation? Read More

WWII 75: Marching to Victory