Records of the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services (Record Group 220)

The Records of the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services consist of correspondence, reports, memos, statistics, studies, inquiries, and recommendations documenting the work of the committee. The President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services was established by Executive Order 9981, on July 26, 1948. Its purpose was to recommend revisions of military regulations in order to implement the government's policy of equality of treatment and opportunity for all members of the armed forces, regardless of race, color, religion or national original. The committee, chaired by Charles Fahy, terminated upon submission of its final report on May 22, 1950. The final report was entitled Freedom to Serve

Size: 6 linear feet (ca. 12,000 pages). Also available on microfilm (11 rolls).
Access: Open.
Copyright: Documents prepared by United States Government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in documents that do not fall into this category is presumed to remain with the authors of the documents, or their heirs.

The President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services was established by Executive Order 9981, on July 26, 1948, to recommend revisions in military regulations in order to implement the government's policy of desegregation of the armed services. The Government's policy, announced in the same order, was that there was to be equality of treatment and opportunity for all members of the armed forces, regardless of race, color, religion, or national origin. The seven-member advisory committee, which was chaired by Charles Fahy, was more commonly known as the Fahy Committee. The Fahy Committee terminated upon submission of its final report on May 22, 1950. The final report of the committee was published as an eighty-two-page document entitled Freedom to Serve.

The Fahy Committee was created within the National Military Establishment and had the following members: Charles Fahy, Charles Luckman, Lester Granger, John H. Sengstacke, William E. Stevenson, Dwight Palmer and Alphonsus J. Donahue. All departments and agencies of the Federal Government were instructed to cooperate with the committee and furnish it with information or services as required. The committee conducted an inquiry; examined the rules and practice of the armed services; and made recommendations for policy improvements to carry out the mandate of the Executive Order 9981. All of the committee's recommendations were approved and accepted by the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the service secretaries.

The Records of the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, also known as the Fahy Committee (Record Group 220), came to the Truman Library from the National Archives in 1968. The records mostly cover the period from 1949 to 1950, the life-span of the committee, and document the formation of the committee and its work in behalf of racial integration of the armed services.

The Fahy Committee was responsible for implementing the government's policy of desegregation of the armed services. The committee conducted inquiries; examined the regulations and practices of the armed services; and made recommendations for policy improvements to carry out the mandate of Executive Order 9981.

The collection is comprised of eighteen series. The first six series are administrative in nature and document the daily workings of the committee. The series are: Inventory of the Fahy Committee Files; Fahy Committee Members and Staff; Fahy Committee Meetings; Reports to the White House; Final Report; and General Correspondence.

These first six series include: an inventory of the collection; individual staff and committee member folders that contain mostly outgoing correspondence; the notes, agendas and transcripts of actual committee meetings; progress reports to the White House that include findings and recommendations; the final Fahy Committee report with various drafts, corrections, and press releases associated with its release; and, lastly, the general correspondence file of the committee. These six series document the procedures used by the committee and its administrative operations.

The next series of records relate to the military services. The series are: Air Force, Armed Services, Army, Army Policy, Civilian Components [National Guard], Coast Guard, and Navy. These records document the committee's interaction with the military. The documents in these series relate specifically to inquiries, policies, manpower studies, and recommendations. They are grouped alphabetically under the specific service or area to which they pertain. They include items such as studies of past policies, hearing transcripts, investigations, integration statistics, findings, commendations, drafts, correspondence, pamphlets, regulations, press releases, reports, and recommendations. These series specifically document the committee's relationship with the armed services and its efforts to integrate the services.

The Fahy Committee Documents series consists mostly of transcripts of the committee meetings and their index. There are also folders of basic working documents. These documents were used by the committee in developing recommendations for integration of the armed services

The Miscellaneous series includes a large body of related information that does not fall within a specific category. It includes a history of blacks and the military, as well as a report of the National Defense Conference on Negro Affairs; a copy of the Nobel Report and a related bibliography; a resolution from Congressman Jacob Javits; various speeches, reports, and press releases; and exhibits of hearings from the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service and Training.

The Selective Service series consists of one folder. It includes a memo about the selective service and racial quotas, and an April 1949 report on Negroes in the Army.

The Newspaper Clippings series is divided into folders of clippings filed under the military service or category to which they pertain. Categories of clippings include the Negro Press, the Fahy Committee and the General Press.

The Security Classified Records series consists of formerly security classified correspondence and reports that were segregated by the committee from the rest of the committee records. All documents in the series have now been declassified. They include studies, findings, estimates of unit strength, a copy of the Gillem report and McCloy Committee documents.

Other files and collections at the Truman Library contain further information on the desegregation of the armed forces. These include Official File 93-B; Official File 1285-0; President's Personal File 2685; President's Secretary's Files; the Philleo Nash Files; and the papers of George M. Elsey, Clark M. Clifford, Philleo Nash, and Charles Fahy.