Racism Discredited.

Governmental Response.

Having failed to convince Congress to make President Roosevelt's wartime FEPC a permanent commission, President Harry S Truman established the President's Committee on Civil Rights on 5 December 1946 to advise him on issues related to discrimination. On 2 February 1948, acting on many of their recommendations, President Truman delivered the first ever presidential civil rights address to Congress, proposing legislation to ban poll taxes, a federal anti-lynching law, and the establishment of a permanent federal Fair Employment Practices Commission. Passage was blocked by powerful Southern Democrats. Change came more quickly in the military. The navy ended segregation in 1946, and on 26 July 1948 President Truman signed Executive Order 9981, banning segregation in all branches of the military. On the same day he also ordered the desegregation of the federal civil service.

Sources:

Michael Barone, Our Country: The Shaping of America from Roosevelt to Reagan...