Four months later his committee comes in with a report, 178 pages, beautifully documented. It’s the blueprint; 35 explicit recommendations. He publicly embraces them all. Doesn’t hesitate. Embraces them all. Washington Post headlines call it an explosive revolutionary report and the President just two months from the election year with a Republican Congress embraces them all. The next year he goes to his Congress, January 7th. When you start a presidential campaign year, the State of the Union is your kick-off speech. He says to the Congress, still Republican-controlled Congress, I’ve got five priorities. The no. 1 priority is civil rights reform and by the way, I’m going to tell you members of Congress more about it in the short term. Twenty-five days later, February 2nd, he sends the first ever comprehensive civil rights bill to the U.S. Congress, a proposal--10 points, everything, anti-lynching, voting rights, end of discrimination in interstate commerce, comprehensive civil rights bill. This is an election year. First ever. By the way, this legislation finally gets adopted in the heat of the civil rights upheaval in the ‘60s, but Harry Truman’s there first with the blueprint.
Not surprising, a month later Gallup conducts a poll and this is where it really does become shocking for a politician--82% of those polled by Gallup opposed Harry Truman’s civil rights proposal, 82%. And I have to read you Harry Truman on polls, because it really says it all, [were it] that more politicians felt this way. These are his words, not mine. “I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt. What would Jesus Christ have preached if he had taken a poll in Israel. Where would the Reformation have gone if Martin Luther had taken a poll? It isn’t polls or public opinion of the moment that counts. It’s right and wrong and leadership. Men with fortitude, honesty and a belief in right,” and by the way, at that point, obviously House member Lyndon Baines Johnson was taking polls because a month after all this happens he launches his campaign for Senate, his second and ultimately successful campaign and who is public enemy no. 1? Harry Truman’s civil rights proposal. He calls it a sham and a farce. So it was widespread political opposition to Harry Truman. This is an election year. Harry Truman is unflinching. He has no intention of backing down.
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Harry Truman makes a great speech. He wasn’t a great orator but he outdid himself this night and he blamed all the ills of the country on the do-nothing Republican-controlled Congress. He also said Republican Congress, you want to make the country right. I’ll give you a chance. Come back to Washington. I’m calling a special session, the Turnip Day Session. Be back in un-air-conditioned Washington on July 26th. We’ll meet for two weeks and we’ll see if you can deliver on your plank. No reason you can’t. You’ve got the leadership. Before that session started, however, the party really fragmented. July 17th then South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond creates the Dixiecrat Party. Two days later Henry Wallace who had been FDR’s vice president creates the Progressive Party. Essentially the Party is shattered. Two of the three prongs that Democrats had relied on, that FDR had relied on for his four victories are gone, the Progressives, the Southern Democrats.
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While he’s in Independence, he receives a letter from a dear friend, a man named Ernie Roberts who he grew up with in Independence. Mr. Roberts has become an industrialist, highly successful and he writes his friend. I’m going to read you just an excerpt of this letter and I want you to know these letters were not letters that we often see today written for spin purposes, leaked. These were private correspondence that took decades before they saw the light. This is Ernie Roberts’ letter early August. He gets it in Independence. “Harry, you can win the South without the equal rights bill, but you cannot win the South with it. Just why? Harry, let us let the South take care of the niggers which they’ve done and if the niggers don’t like the southern treatment, let them come to Mrs. Roosevelt.”
Now, Harry Truman could write some nasty letters when he was irritated. He took a week before he answered this letter and I must tell you, this letter to me was one of the most instructive things I found in my research. I’ll just read an excerpt of a long letter. “Dear Ernie. I’m going to send you a copy of the report on my Commission on Civil Rights and if then you still have that antebellum, pro-slavery outlook, I’ll be thoroughly disappointed in you. The main difficulty with the South is that they are living 80 years behind the time and the sooner they come out of it, the better it will for the country and themselves. When a Mayor and a City Marshall can take a Negro Sergeant off a bus in South Carolina, beat him up, put out one of his eyes and nothing is done about it by the state authorities, something is radically wrong with the system. I cannot approve of such goings on and I shall never approve it as long as I am here. As I told you before, I’m going to try to remedy it and if it ends up in my failure to be reelected, that failure will be in a good cause.”
http://www.virginia.edu/uvanewsmakers/newsmakers/gardner.html
Also look at the history of success of the Truman Committee
The Truman Committee, formally known as the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, was a United States Congressional investigative body headed by Senator Harry S. Truman.[1] The bipartisan special committee was formed in March 1941 to find and correct problems in US war production—problems with waste, inefficiency and war profiteering. The Truman Committee proved to be one of the most successful investigative efforts ever mounted by the US government: an initial budget of $15,000 was expanded over three years to $360,000 to save an estimated $10–15 billion in military spending, and thousands of lives of US servicemen.[2][3][4] Chairing the committee helped Truman make a name for himself beyond his political machine origins, and was a major factor in the decision to nominate him as vice president, which would propel him to the presidency following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt.[5]
Truman stepped down from leadership of the committee in August 1944, to concentrate on running for vice president in that year's presidential election. From 1941 until its official end in 1948, the Truman Committee held 432 public hearings, listened to 1,798 witnesses and published almost 2,000 pages of reports.[3] Every committee report was unanimous, with bipartisan support.[6]
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The Truman Committee is known for having indirectly helped Truman become president. It made his name prominent across the United States, giving him a reputation for honesty and courage.[11] In May 1944, Look magazine asked a pool of 52 Washington correspondents who were the top ten civilians, after Roosevelt, helping the war effort. Truman was named; he was the only congressman on the list.[39][40][41] A few months later, Truman was among the few names put forward as possible vice-presidents under the seriously ill Roosevelt; a vice-presidency that was very likely to turn into a presidency. Truman's broad experience with industrial, economic and military issues, gained by three years of investigative work with the Committee, served to make him one of the most well-informed men in US government, and gave him a reputation for fair dealing.[29][42][43][44]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Committee#After_Truman
You can't match his honesty in politics, it was a miracle he ever became President.
= new reply since forum marked as read
