My parents grew up in Houston TX. They moved to Maryland during WW II to work for naval ordinance. When I was a young adult, I asked my mother how she had managed to grow up in the South and not be prejudiced. Her response was that she knew in her heart that it was wrong. Wouldn’t it be nice if more people saw racial conflict as wrong in their hearts.
Any effort to make everyone feel equal is based on tolerance and its currently in trouble.
Tolerance is a sensitive emotion and when “insisted” instead of “suggested” creates the opposite effect.
The more we have mandatory minority forced tolerance platforms and programs like DIE and the rampant victimization of the culture of white people for the sins of the far distant past and their history being changed….. then expect intolerance to rise…. The so called cultural experts don’t have a clue.
About the only recent good news was the move away from affirmative action.. but many other issues to resolve.
This was one of your best editorials that I have read so far. It is so scary that we may be going backwards instead of forward. Thank you for your excellent writings. Madelyn Minehart
President Truman is a wonderful example of how we are capable of change for the better despite our background. We must not allow our schools to teach a distorted version of our country's history. Our children must learn the truth about our country's history. All the brave men and women of every race who contributed in the fight against fascism deserve our great thanks. President Truman deserves our great thanks as well and is a shining example for all of us to follow.
Hooray for Harry S. Truman! He had the integrity to do the right thing, notwithstanding opposing pressures from his early years in politics, and the national mood as he found it as negatively influenced by Southern notions. In that respect, he outdid his predecessor, the beloved Franklin D. Roosevelt, who felt constrained by his reliance on Southern lawmakers in Washington whose collaboration he needed to make the New Deal a reality. Never mind that the New Deal greatly benefited the South, especially Roosevelt's establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority, necessary to electrify the South, which was still in the kerosene lamp age, and without the electrical capacity needed to power an industrial revolution the South badly needed to move forward.
Neither man was a villain or a saint, but the upshot of the political maneuvering and horse trading ended up with progress outmaneuvering or defeating segregationist regression. In politics, timing counts. But when Truman issued the Executive Order in 1948, who is to say whether it would have been better done later, or sooner even, than he did it? All along, it was an artificial barrier that existed only as long as it was permitted to exist. With the stroke of a pen, Truman did away with it. Vestiges lingered, but will alone ended a bad practice and embraced a proper status quo.
Beautiful and timely piece. A reminder of so many promises made in speech and writing we have still not found a way to universally keep and hold sacred to keep us thriving together.
I would like to see the Pledge of Allegiance rewritten to read: “....still striving for liberty and justice for all.” (Instead of ‘with liberty and justice for all’)
The previous Presidency did one thing of benefit to this country: it showed the rest of the country - and the world - how virulent racial prejudice still is in this country. MAGA will never make a democratic society built upon the backs of slaves and poor immigrants at the cost of the indigenous peoples "great again". Thank you bringing forth a great moment in our history that many would prefer staying in the background.
When I went into the US Army in Sep '74 there were still issues of racism. I ran into more in Germany my first duty assignment. We had to go to race relation classes in civilian clothes because the classes were for all ranks and no one could use their rank to intimidate others. I had friends all over post although some of them were in units where there were a lot of problems (racially). I didn't have any issues off post where the Germans were suppose to hate Americans (especially black Americans). That was my best duty station. Then I was sent to Ft. Benning, GA, '78 and it felt that I had gone back in time on and off post. I'm originally from MA where there were minor issues of racism but nothing like I found in my two stateside assignments Ft. Benning, GA '78 and Ft. Hood, Killeen, TX '85 (this after being stationed in England between Liverpool and Manchester). Now I'm watching the craziness that the Maga Repugs are trying to totally reverse. I can only hope that people will see this and work hard to vote these bad apples out of office before they totally take us back in time.
My father served in Air Force as a Captain/Major at this time. While I was growing up I remember the housing and schools being desegregated, kids are kids. When Dad was stationed at Klamath Station as the Commander, he had opened officer housing to high ranking non-coms and that was desegregrated as well. For me growing up desegregation was normal. And I am grateful for it. People are people. Then I watch a piece by 60 Minutes last night about how Centerville authorities 'sold' a black cemetery for developing. This is heinous desecration and speaks loudly about the qualified 'family values.'...especially when one contrasts the treatment of a few Civil War fighters graves as a sanctuary!
I was born in 1960 in Detroit. I grew up with the racial divide that seemed normal to a young kid. The '67 riot in Detroit was scary to a six-year-old who knew nothing of the problems. I thought we were making some progress in racial relations for most of my life. Then Trump came along and gave political cover to white supremacists, neo-nazis, and anarchists in general. Republican's keep talking about a two-tiered justice system aimed at them. I would like to ask them about the tier of justice this country allows the poor and minority's in this country. I believe we have lost ground when it comes to progress.
Thank you Dan Rather. As an Army brat and an Army veteran, I was a beneficiary of a diverse military. I had two superb Black platoon sergeants, and became very much "at home" with integration on the base, even though two of my stations were Fort Gordon, Georgia, outside of Augusta, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, outside of Fayetteville. And I served 1959-62, pre-Civil Rights Act and very much in the still formally segregated South. I am proud of military integration, despite a number of still challenging shortcomings, to this day.
Thank you for this look back. We need this reconfirmed in our Armed Forces today and in every walk of life.
My parents grew up in Houston TX. They moved to Maryland during WW II to work for naval ordinance. When I was a young adult, I asked my mother how she had managed to grow up in the South and not be prejudiced. Her response was that she knew in her heart that it was wrong. Wouldn’t it be nice if more people saw racial conflict as wrong in their hearts.
The pathway to the heart goes directly through the heart. If you appeal to someone’s heart, chances are their mind is involved as well.
Any effort to make everyone feel equal is based on tolerance and its currently in trouble.
Tolerance is a sensitive emotion and when “insisted” instead of “suggested” creates the opposite effect.
The more we have mandatory minority forced tolerance platforms and programs like DIE and the rampant victimization of the culture of white people for the sins of the far distant past and their history being changed….. then expect intolerance to rise…. The so called cultural experts don’t have a clue.
About the only recent good news was the move away from affirmative action.. but many other issues to resolve.
This was one of your best editorials that I have read so far. It is so scary that we may be going backwards instead of forward. Thank you for your excellent writings. Madelyn Minehart
President Truman is a wonderful example of how we are capable of change for the better despite our background. We must not allow our schools to teach a distorted version of our country's history. Our children must learn the truth about our country's history. All the brave men and women of every race who contributed in the fight against fascism deserve our great thanks. President Truman deserves our great thanks as well and is a shining example for all of us to follow.
Hooray for Harry S. Truman! He had the integrity to do the right thing, notwithstanding opposing pressures from his early years in politics, and the national mood as he found it as negatively influenced by Southern notions. In that respect, he outdid his predecessor, the beloved Franklin D. Roosevelt, who felt constrained by his reliance on Southern lawmakers in Washington whose collaboration he needed to make the New Deal a reality. Never mind that the New Deal greatly benefited the South, especially Roosevelt's establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority, necessary to electrify the South, which was still in the kerosene lamp age, and without the electrical capacity needed to power an industrial revolution the South badly needed to move forward.
Neither man was a villain or a saint, but the upshot of the political maneuvering and horse trading ended up with progress outmaneuvering or defeating segregationist regression. In politics, timing counts. But when Truman issued the Executive Order in 1948, who is to say whether it would have been better done later, or sooner even, than he did it? All along, it was an artificial barrier that existed only as long as it was permitted to exist. With the stroke of a pen, Truman did away with it. Vestiges lingered, but will alone ended a bad practice and embraced a proper status quo.
Thank you for this important history lesson.
Beautiful and timely piece. A reminder of so many promises made in speech and writing we have still not found a way to universally keep and hold sacred to keep us thriving together.
I would like to see the Pledge of Allegiance rewritten to read: “....still striving for liberty and justice for all.” (Instead of ‘with liberty and justice for all’)
The previous Presidency did one thing of benefit to this country: it showed the rest of the country - and the world - how virulent racial prejudice still is in this country. MAGA will never make a democratic society built upon the backs of slaves and poor immigrants at the cost of the indigenous peoples "great again". Thank you bringing forth a great moment in our history that many would prefer staying in the background.
When I went into the US Army in Sep '74 there were still issues of racism. I ran into more in Germany my first duty assignment. We had to go to race relation classes in civilian clothes because the classes were for all ranks and no one could use their rank to intimidate others. I had friends all over post although some of them were in units where there were a lot of problems (racially). I didn't have any issues off post where the Germans were suppose to hate Americans (especially black Americans). That was my best duty station. Then I was sent to Ft. Benning, GA, '78 and it felt that I had gone back in time on and off post. I'm originally from MA where there were minor issues of racism but nothing like I found in my two stateside assignments Ft. Benning, GA '78 and Ft. Hood, Killeen, TX '85 (this after being stationed in England between Liverpool and Manchester). Now I'm watching the craziness that the Maga Repugs are trying to totally reverse. I can only hope that people will see this and work hard to vote these bad apples out of office before they totally take us back in time.
My father served in Air Force as a Captain/Major at this time. While I was growing up I remember the housing and schools being desegregated, kids are kids. When Dad was stationed at Klamath Station as the Commander, he had opened officer housing to high ranking non-coms and that was desegregrated as well. For me growing up desegregation was normal. And I am grateful for it. People are people. Then I watch a piece by 60 Minutes last night about how Centerville authorities 'sold' a black cemetery for developing. This is heinous desecration and speaks loudly about the qualified 'family values.'...especially when one contrasts the treatment of a few Civil War fighters graves as a sanctuary!
I was born in 1960 in Detroit. I grew up with the racial divide that seemed normal to a young kid. The '67 riot in Detroit was scary to a six-year-old who knew nothing of the problems. I thought we were making some progress in racial relations for most of my life. Then Trump came along and gave political cover to white supremacists, neo-nazis, and anarchists in general. Republican's keep talking about a two-tiered justice system aimed at them. I would like to ask them about the tier of justice this country allows the poor and minority's in this country. I believe we have lost ground when it comes to progress.
Thank you for this comment. I didn’t know that the Air Force was first to desegregate nor that the Army was the last.
Thank you Dan Rather. As an Army brat and an Army veteran, I was a beneficiary of a diverse military. I had two superb Black platoon sergeants, and became very much "at home" with integration on the base, even though two of my stations were Fort Gordon, Georgia, outside of Augusta, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, outside of Fayetteville. And I served 1959-62, pre-Civil Rights Act and very much in the still formally segregated South. I am proud of military integration, despite a number of still challenging shortcomings, to this day.
Such a poignant and timely message from our history!