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How Did African Americans Change The Military Diversity

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The military is diverse now, but there was a time when it wasn’t and the people had to fight for it. In 1948 that had changed because of President Harry Truman. President Truman and others had written a document that changed the military diversity. Before Truman was president, there was President Franklin Roosevelt, who was there since the beginning of World War 2. In 1940, there was 12.6 African Americans in the United States and over one million of them went into the armed forces. They constituted about 11 per cent for service in all branches except the Marines. During World War 2, President Roosevelt had responded to some of the complaints in June 1941 about the discrimination against African Americans and wrote the Executive order 8802. The document said that blacks would be accepted in job training programs and it established fair employment practices commission (FEPC). Even with all of this, it still wasn’t enough. …show more content…

He became president after the death of Franklin Roosevelt during the months of World War 2. Truman has been watching the problems with segregation since 1947. He knew that other races struggled to try to prove their patriotism, so Truman wanted to help end military segregation. To start off, he allowed congress to terminate FEPC. Even though there were complaints and protest he still wanted to go through with it. Truman didn’t end the segregation until the Democratic Nation Convention called for liberal civil rights that included desegregation of armed forces. When that happened Truman issued an executive order on July 26, 1948 that abolished discrimination in the armed forces and led to the end of segregation to people who wanted to

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