Martin Luther King, Jr. Day | November 18, 2025
Legacy Letter
Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Truman’s World-defining Presidency
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day | January 15, 2024
Dear Friends,
IT IS THAT POINT IN A NEW YEAR when we discover whether we’re serious about our bold and aspirational pledges for betterment.
I don’t know whether President Truman made personal New Year’s resolutions, but I do know what he resolved to do for our nation. And 75 years ago, Americans discovered that Truman was serious about advancing civil rights and racial equity.
On January 12, 1949…
- 2 years after forming the President’s Committee on Civil Rights
- 1 1/2 years after his groundbreaking Civil Rights Address to the NAACP
- 6 months after issuing Executive Order 9981, demanding the end of racial segregation in the armed forces
…Harry Truman called into session the group charged with carrying out his desegregation order.
That group was the newly formed President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Forces. Truman appointed Charles Fahy to chair the committee, and the president had this to say as it met for the first time, 75 years ago this week:
“It is my profound desire that the work of this Committee shall yield results which will not simply be a report, but a set of operable plans, a blueprint, for constructive action. The national security requires that you make your contribution, consistent with the fundamental rights of all men, toward the full development of the strength of our country.”
Three days later, on January 15, 1949, a theology student in Pennsylvania celebrated his 20th birthday. Although it would be six years before the world would know the name Martin Luther King, Jr., there had been at least one hint that the young seminarian would one day play a leading role in the history unfolding in Washington, D.C.
In fact, the very same events that had prompted Harry Truman to lead on civil rights had also inspired the young Martin to pen his first op-ed.
For those of you who have been following us through the 75th anniversaries of Harry Truman’s presidency, you’ll recall that last summer marked the 75th anniversary of Executive Orders 9980 and 9981, ending Jim Crow in the federal workforce and racial segregation and inequity in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Those presidential orders followed a year of horrific violence against Black Americans, WWII veterans in particular. Maceo Snipes served in the Pacific during World War II and returned home to make history as the first Black person to vote in Taylor County, Georgia, an act for which he was murdered by a white mob. Earlier that year, Isaac Woodard was on his way home, still in uniform, when he was brutally blinded. And on July 25, 1946, George W. and Mae Murray Dorsey, and Roger and Dorothy Malcom were dragged from their car near Moore’s Ford in Georgia and lynched by a mob.
The public nature of the Moore’s Ford lynching, especially, gained national press attention. President Truman demanded a federal investigation and offered a $12,500 reward for information leading to a conviction. That’s more than $150,000 in today’s dollars, and yet the FBI and a grand jury failed to deliver justice. President Truman later referenced the Moore’s Ford lynching as influencing his determination to “fight and end evils like this.”
And that brings us back to that op-ed by the young Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the letter, King was critical of those who stoke the flames of fear and “kick up dust” to “obscure the real question of rights and opportunities.” Years later, Martin’s father would say that he and his wife had “no intimation” of their son’s “developing greatness”—his resolve to play his part in history—until he wrote that letter, which was published by the Atlanta Constitution.
Today, as we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., we are reminded that history is made not by heroes. History is made by individuals who are responsive to the events of their time—courageous individuals, both citizens and elected representatives, who have a deep understanding of our founding ideals and an unwavering resolve to the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution.
As ever, may our history guide our future. As ever, thank you for helping us shine the light on our nation’s story and Truman’s legacy, as we inspire the next generation of heroes and history makers.
Stay TRU,
Alex Burden
Executive Director
P.S. Please keep scrolling to learn more about Truman’s civil rights legacy. To read Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1946 op-ed in the Atlanta Constitution, click here.
EXPLORE THE LEGACY
JANUARY 1949
The President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Forces (The Fahy Committee)
Before Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, before Rosa Parks’ historic act of civil disobedience, and before the legislative victories of the 1960s, there was President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights (1946); the groundbreaking report on systemic racism, To Secure These Rights (1947); and Executive Order 9981 (1948), which rejected the prevailing “separate but equal” view and called for an integrated military with equal opportunity regardless of color, ethnicity, religion or gender.
Truman charged the Fahy Committee with the monumental task of implementing his groundbreaking executive order. Together with To Secure These Rights, their work created a blueprint for nearly all the civil rights victories that followed.
The Fahy Committee: January 12, 1949
In his first meeting with the Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Forces, also known as the Fahy Committee, President Truman made his expectations clear: “I want concrete results—that’s what I’m after—not publicity on it.” The Committee responded by not only investigating conditions but also working quietly and diligently with the Army, Navy, and Air Force to bring about desired changes.
FROM THE VAULT
View the Historic Photo
“We’ve Got to Go Further!”
The Proposed Civil Rights Act of 1949
Truman’s vision for civil rights in America was expansive. “I want this rounded out a bit,” he told the Fahy Committee on January 12, 1949. “Let’s make it a Government proposition, as well as an Armed Services [one]….We’ve got to go further…and see that the state and local governments carry out the spirit of the laws which we hope to get on the books down here during this session of Congress.”
President Truman was referring to the proposed Civil Rights Act of 1949. You read that right. Fifteen years before Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Truman attempted to put the principles of racial justice into law.
FROM THE VAULT
View Then-Attorney General Tom C. Clark’s
Analysis of the Proposed Civil Rights Act of 1949
Download PDF
Civil Rights in America: 1949
Part of the Library of Congress collection, “A Civil Rights Map of America” appeared in The Law of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: A Handbook of Your Basic Rights. In 1949, the map would have served as a practical guide for people looking to move from state to state, take a road trip, or do business across state lines. Today, it is a graphic reminder of how divided the U.S. was on civil rights as Truman sought to enforce his desegregation orders and to convince Congress to pass a civil rights act, along with fair housing, fair employment, voting rights and anti-lynching laws.
On the above graphic, laws enforcing or prohibiting racial segregation are coded by type:
1) Travel; 2) Hotels, Resorts, Theaters, etc.; 3) Public Schools; 4) State Colleges; 5) Private Colleges; 6) Private Employers; 7) Public Employers; 8) Civil Service; 9) Health/Welfare Facilities; 10) Insurance; 11) Public or State Aided Housing
The Report: May 1950
The Fahy Committee’s 82-page report, entitled Freedom to Serve, was published in 1950. The members were Charles Fahy, chairman, Lester B. Granger, Dwight R.G. Palmer, John H. Sengstacke, and William E. Stevenson.
“What is going on is a kind of quiet social revolution about which the country knows nothing. We feel that over a period of time this…will have an incalculable effect on the civil population.”
– E.W. Kenworthy, executive secretary of the Fahy Committee
in an interview with Eric Severeid, CBS News
February 24, 1950
“Judge Fahy and the members of his Committee have been unsparing in the time and energy they have devoted to their mission. Every American who believes sincerely in the language of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence owes them a debt of gratitude.”
– President Harry S. Truman
May 22, 1950
FROM THE VAULT
Explore the Fahy Committee’s Report: “Freedom to Serve”
Freedom to Serve in the 21st Century:
“We Have a Template”
COL. ERIES L. G. MENTZER
Freedom to Serve Champion
“Truman’s executive orders echoed the ideals written into our Declaration of Independence by our founding fathers: All men are created equal. The orders put the services on a path toward greater equality and diversity. They placed the first brick in the long and winding road we are on today. They were a start, but…there is more to be done. Men and women who raise their right hand and pledge their lives in service to our nation still face barriers to being their best, true selves. [In “Freedom to Serve”], we have a template…to cultivate a fully inclusive force by removing barriers to services. Only then can [we] lead our nation forward.”
“We have a template…to cultivate a fully inclusive force by removing barriers to service. Only then can we lead our nation forward.”
– Col. Eries L. G. Mentzer
Commander and CMSgt. Lee E. Hoover Jr., Command Chief
Excerpted from USAF Air University
SUPPORT THE LEGACY
Truman Library’s “Classroom for Democracy”
Much has changed between 1949 and 2024, but much endures…like these timeless lessons from Harry Truman’s life and leadership:
Always give your best.
Failure is no barrier.
Take responsibility and serve.
Never compromise your integrity.
Be bold. Be decisive.
Work to safeguard democracy.
Prepare the rising generation to lead.
Thank you for your support in 2024!
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