[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 120 (Tuesday, July 22, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1520-E1521]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   RECOGNIZING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INTEGRATION OF THE ARMED 
                                SERVICES

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. EMANUEL CLEAVER

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 14, 2008

  Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, in 1940 the U.S. population was about 131 
million, 12.6 million of which was African American, or about 10 
percent of the total population.
  During World War II, the Army had become the Nation's largest 
minority employer. Of the 2.5 million African Americans males who 
registered for the draft more than one million were inducted into the 
armed forces. African Americans, who constituted approximately 11 per 
cent of all draftees Along with thousands of black women, these 
inductees served with distinction in all branches of service and in all 
Theaters of Operations during World War II.
  I have a proud personal connection to one of those who risked their 
lives in the segregated service. Over 966 Black military aviators were 
trained at the Tuskegee Airfield. One of these men, I am proud to say, 
was my uncle, the Reverend LeRoy Cleaver, Jr.
  The Tuskegee Airmen carried a heavy burden. Every single mission, 
every success, every failure was viewed in relation to the color of 
their skin. They could fly the skies valiantly and return to the tarmac 
only to have their white peers refuse to return their salutes.

[[Page E1521]]

  Even the Nazis asked why African American men would fight for a 
country that treated them so unfairly. Yet the Tuskegee Airmen were 
eager to fly and die for a Nation that had done little for them.
  These men, like over a million others who fought in World War II, 
fought two wars: One was in Europe, and the other in the hearts and 
minds of Americans.
  As a poignant example, the white commander of the Tuskegee airfield 
was once asked--with all seriousness--how do African Americans fly? He 
said, ``Oh, they fly just like everybody else flies--stick and 
rudder.'' Little by little, every victory at war was translated to a 
victory here in the United States.
  On February 2, 1948, President Truman, in no small part due to the 
bravery of the men of Tuskegee, announced in a special message to 
Congress that he had, ``instructed the Secretary of Defense to take 
steps to have the remaining instances of discrimination in the armed 
services eliminated as rapidly as possible.''
  President Truman's former colleagues and drinking partners, the 
Senators from the Southern States immediately threatened a filibuster. 
The typically bull-headed man from Missouri forced the issue by using 
his executive powers. Among other things, Truman bolstered the civil 
rights division, appointed the first African American judge to the 
Federal bench, named several other African Americans to high-ranking 
administration positions, and most important, 60 years ago on July 26, 
1948, he issued an executive order abolishing segregation in the armed 
forces and ordering full integration of all the services.
  Executive Order 9981 declared that ``there shall be equality of 
treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without 
regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.'' By the end of 
the Korean conflict, almost all the military was integrated.
  The men and women I am proud to represent in Missouri's Fifth 
District have contributed a great deal to this Nation we love. They 
have fought wars, supplied the expansion the West, founded religions, 
painted masterpieces, composed symphonies--but perhaps none have done 
more to shape the face of the earth than President Truman. May history 
always remember Executive Order 9981 as quintessential Truman. In 
classic Truman style, the order was an example of making a decision not 
because it was easy, but because it was the right thing to do.

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