This integration proceeded very well, and when he
was put in charge of all forces in the Far East, he asked the
Defense Department for permission to integrate all of the forces
in the area. Within three months, the extent of integration in
the Armed Forces jumped from nine percent to thirty percent.
While Afro-Americans were pleased, they were also convinced
that it had been done more from the pressure of world opinion
than from a genuine humanitarian conscience.
During this period, the Federal Government took a more active
role in several other ways in regard to improving race relations.
How much of this action sprang from internal motivation and how
much resulted from the pressure of world opinion is a matter of
conjecture. In any case, the Truman Administration deliberately
created an atmosphere favorable to changing race relations within
America. In 1946 Truman appointed a committee on civil rights
which, after intensive study, published its report, To Secure
These Rights.
The report set forth that the Federal Government had the duty to
act in order to safeguard civil rights when local or state
governments either could not or did not take such action.
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