The Double V: How Wars, Protest, and Harry Truman Desegregated America's Military
In 1948, President Truman issued an executive order desegregating the armed forces, an initiative that was virulently attacked by segregationists but praised as an act of moral courage and statesmanship by leftists, liberals, and even some conservatives. By the 1960s, amid the turmoil of racial and political strife, the American military was often described as a hopeful example of racial cooperation, if not harmony. But Truman’s action, while admirable, did not come out of the blue. Rather, it was the culmination of two centuries of struggle and halting progress by African Americans and sympathetic whites to ensure that soldiers and sailors of color were afforded the respect and decent treatment they deserved. James tracks the process from the Revolutionary War to Truman’s order and beyond. His account is replete with noble strivers; some, including Frederick Douglass and Thurgood Marshall, are familiar names, but others—more obscure—also played important roles. This is both an informative and an engrossing chronicle of an essential struggle. --Jay Freeman