Lewis 1

Leah Lewis

Annotated Bibliography

Primary Sources

The President’s Committee. Freedom to Serve. Washington D.C.: United States Government

Printing Office, 1950. Accessed Oct. 09, 2017.

https://www.trumanlibrary.org/civilrights/freeserv.htm

This Truman Library provides a copy of the text from Freedom to Serve, which was a

report stating the goals of the Presidential Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity

in the Armed Services. The report provided another copy of the Executive Order, as well as the

members of Truman’s Presidential Committee. Furthermore, it includes the conditions and

treatment of black soldiers, compared to white soldiers, in each branch of the armed forces. I

plan to use this source to describe the conditions within each branch, before and after the

executive order was given.

Truman, Harry S. “Executive Order 9981.” Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.

July 26, 1948. Accessed Oct. 09, 2017. https://trumanlibrary.org/9981.htm

This source from the Truman Library is a copy of the Executive Order 9981, which is the

document that my project is based around. It provides information about the exact terms and

conditions that were set as part of the order. Since my project surrounds this document, and the

impact that it had on both segregation in the armed forces and progression of the Civil Rights

movement, it will be a main source of reference in my project when comparing the compromises

and conflict which arose.

 Lewis 2

Secondary Sources

“Desegregation of the Armed Forces.” Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.

Accessed Oct. 09, 2017.

https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/desegregation/large/index.p

hp?action=bg

This secondary source provides background information about the Executive Order 9881,

as well as other actions that were taken to segregate the U.S. armed forces. It provides a timeline

of events, such as when the various presidential commission and committees were establishes to

oversee the progression of civil rights, as well as to report abuses and racism in the military. In

addition, it provides information about specific causes which resulted in the order being given to

desegregate the military. I will use this source to provide specific examples of events which led

to the Executive Order 9981 to be issued, as well as causes of additional acts that were passed to

strengthen the carrying out of the order.

Feng, Patrick. “Executive Order 9981: Integration of the Armed Forces.” The Campaign for the

National Museum of the United States Army. Jan. 28, 2015. Accessed Oct. 09, 2017.

https://armyhistory.org/executive-order-9981-integration-of-the-armed-forces/

This secondary source article provides a summary of the causes and effects of Executive

Order 9981. It also gives examples of the role that African Americans have played in various

wars such as the American Revolution and Civil War, until wars in the mid to late 1900s where

the important contributions that African American soldiers made to national defense were finally

recognized. I will use this source to get an overall idea about conflict before and after the

compromise that the order served to be.

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MacGregor, Morris. Integration of the Armed Forces 1940-1965. Washington D.C.: Center of

Military History United States Army, 2001. PDF e-book.

https://history.army.mil/html/books/050/50-1-1/index.html

This book informs readers about the fall of legal, administrative, and social barriers

which had prohibited minorities from full serving in the military, using written documents as

support. Additionally, Morris, explains feelings about the use of the words black, colored, and

Negro to characterize African American soldiers in the military. This source is helpful because it

separates the armed forces by branch, and discusses the treatment of experiences of African

American soldiers during World War II. I will be able to use this information to explain

Executive Order 9881’s impact on desegregation within each branch separately.