Truman Black: An Analysis

This sample essay on Truman Black reveals arguments and important aspects of this topic. Read this essay’s introduction, body paragraphs and the conclusion below.

When Harry Truman came to power in 1945 his policies were very much associated with black civil rights, in this assignment we must establish whether he simply just wanted the black vote or whether there were underlying reasons for his association and his appealing to the black voters. Truman was born and raised in the state of Missouri which had a large white population and a small black population, it would have been unusual for Harry Truman not to be a racist.

The environment he grew up in was very racist and his own ancestors had owned slaves, many of the blacks in the state of Missouri were also previously slaves. Previous to 1944 Truman did not need the black vote to win, no need to ‘court’ the black vote.

Roosevelt in 1944 was looking for a vice president, Truman got the position and for the first time had to appeal to the whole of the USA, therefore he had to ‘court’ the black vote. It was possibly the first time that the black vote actually accounted for something (‘franchisement’- the right to vote).

Truman Black

Then in 1945 when President Roosevelt died, Truman became president, at first he was not helpful to blacks. In 1948 the presidential election was held and it was then that Truman really pushed his civil rights policies, possibly to win the black vote. To win the election he needed to secure at least 270 votes.

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There are 538 votes in the Electoral College and the candidate who wins the vote in each state receives all of the electoral votes assigned to that state.

Each state has a number of Electoral College votes equal to the number of senators it has plus the number of members of the House of Representatives it has (which is dependant upon the population of the state). New York, Illinois and Michigan were the three most important (northern) states in the election process because they had a large black population. It was these three black communities which Truman needed to convince to vote for him, in order for him to become president, they were the deciding states as it were.

His rival was Strom Thurmond a republican, who was an overt racist whereas Truman was a democrat. His plan was flaw proof, by offering civil rights to the blacks in the Dixie-southern states and those in the two most important northern states would win him the presidency. This action shows the great influence that Truman’s policies had on the black voters. It cannot be argued that in no means can it possibly be due to his need for the black vote, the fact is ‘it was to do with votes’.

In the election Truman carried an unprecedented two-thirds of the black vote. He did however lose the ‘Dixiecrat vote’, which was probably significantly as large as the black vote. However this does not entirely explain his support for civil rights, there were a number of other factors which played a part in his support. In 1945 the cold war took place, an ideological conflict between the USA and the USSR followed. Both super powers were involved in a global power struggle and both had the potential to control the entire world.

The USA believed the whole world should adopt their capitalist system and at the same time the USSR believed the world should adopt their communist system. In 1945 the USSR and Mongolia were both communist run countries but between 1945 and 1948 Poland, Czechoslovakia, Eastern Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Yugoslavia and China were a new list of countries that Russia had ‘liberated’ forced to become communist, in the global power struggle. Americans became terrified that the world would become communist and that they would be swamped.

Americans did not want to be part of a communist country because it would mean all their wealth would have to be shared, industry would be state-owned not privately owned and elections would be a one-party dictatorship with all candidates belonging to the communist party. The Americans embarked upon a ‘red witch hunt’ an attack on all communist countries. Truman firmly believed that equality was vital in maintaining America’s moral standing in the Cold War world. So Truman may have been eager to gain equality for all Americans, to stand tall against the USSR, in the global power struggle.

Truman may have also been backing black civil rights for the sole reason to protect the Americans national reputation ‘conscience’, he believed that there should be an end to lynching, the poll tax and inequality in education and employment. It was clear that he was motivated by the desire to do what was best for America, alongside the other factors which contributed to his policies. Truman was a racist but tried to be fair. He did not seek social equality for blacks but he wanted legal equality, which he saw as a black man’s basic right, ‘because he is a human being and a natural born American’.

It was clear he was still representing the Missouri voters. He was especially horrified by the attacks on black servicemen returning from World War II, the worst occurred in the Deep South where Negro soldiers had just returned from overseas and were dumped out of army trucks in Missouri and beaten Truman remarked that these stories turned his stomach. His opinion on education for blacks was that if they were better educated that it would benefit the economy and in turn help all Americans, he told black democrats of this belief.

His ideas were deliberately misrepresented. His advocacy for equality of opportunity was interpreted as miscegenation and integration, which was unprecedented. Integrated political meetings, which he conducted in southern states, caused serious violence. ‘Idealism’ was an important element in his actions, this was seen when he put his life on the line. When The Ku Klux Klan surrounded a several thousand strong crowd, at a meeting but dared not attack because 100 armed blacks stood alongside them.

Truman recognised that regardless of race the respect for the law was at sake. In the case of a white person being violent towards a black person, in whom they were not punished led to the belief and idea that the law was more lenient on the white community. Therefore it was likely that the whites would abuse the law and lose all respect for it. Also those whites, who saw little help for those black people being attacked, would lose their trust in the law to support them in times of need. The nation would lose pride in their justice system.

However, privately Truman would still refer to blacks as ‘niggers’, his sister even claimed that ‘Harry is no more for nigger equality than any of us’. This paints a different picture to how he was regarded by his public. The question being analysed has a very open ended answer, as it is quite possible that President Truman was motivated by the black vote, respect for the law, humane repugnance at racist attacks, personal veracity and his insight into what was good for his country at the time and its proclaimed leadership of the free world against communism, which veered Truman toward support of greater equality for blacks.

However, ultimately he supported civil rights so strongly, it could be claimed that it was simply to win the black vote and as a result gain power of the country that he had been brought up in. the definitive reward, which he longed for, a famous name all around the world and a place in history. Still there remains to be strong enough evidence to prove that Truman’s motivation was not purely political. Therefore Truman’s association with black civil rights was not totally motivated by his want for the black vote but as a result of a combination of reasons.