A series of policies were formerly issued by the U.S. military which entailed the separation of white and non-white American soldiers, prohibitions on the recruitment of people of color and restrictions of ethnic minorities to supporting roles. Since the American Revolutionary War, each branch of the United States Armed Forces implemented differing policies surrounding racial segregation. Racial discrimination in the U.S. military was officially opposed by Harry S. Truman's Executive Order 9981 in 1948. The goal was equality of treatment and opportunity. Jon Taylor says, "The wording of the Executive Order was vague because it neither mentioned segregation or integration."[1][2] Racial segregation was ended in the mid-1950s.[3]
- ^ Jon Taylor, Freedom to serve: Truman, civil rights, and Executive Order 9981 (Routledge, 2013), chapter 5.
- ^ Truman, Harry S. "Executive Order 9981-Establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services." Federal Register 13 (1948): 4313.
- ^ David A. Nichols, A matter of justice: Eisenhower and the beginning of the civil rights revolution (Simon and Schuster, 2007).