Executive Order 9981

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Executive Order 9981 was an executive order issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman. It abolished discrimination "on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin" in the United States Armed Forces. The order led to the reintegration of the services during the Korean War (1950–1953). It was a crucial event in the post–World War II civil rights movement and a major achievement of Truman's presidency. For Truman, Executive Order 9981 was inspired, in part, by an attack on Isaac Woodard, who was an American soldier and African American World War II veteran. On February 12, 1946, hours after being honorably discharged from the United States Army, he was attacked while still in uniform by South Carolina police as he was taking a bus home. The attack left Woodard completely and permanently blind. President Harry S. Truman ordered a federal investigation. Truman also established the President's Committee on Civil Rights, whose report, To Secure These Rights, condemned the...

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