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‘The longest road to equality’: The Politics of Institutional Desegregation Under Truman
Author(s) -
KING DESMOND
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.1993.tb00043.x
Subject(s) - desegregation , politics , public administration , democracy , underpinning , commission , political science , civil service , law and economics , political economy , public service , law , sociology , civil engineering , engineering
This paper addresses two questions. First, how did selected public institutions (principally the Armed Services and US Civil Service Commission) sustain segregationist values and assumptions? Second, how did President Truman tackle institutional segregation given the political support for this system in Congress and the Democratic party before the 1950s? I draw upon the ‘new institutional’ framework to analyse the role of public sector organisations in maintaining institutional segregation. I reject the new institutional thesis that such institutions are relatively autonomous because this claim neglects their political support and political origins, and the extent to which the values and assumptions they embody are protected politically. I argue that the national political coalition underpinning segregation explains why Truman relied upon executive action to effect institutional desegregation. Archival material from the investigative committees Truman established is marshalled to support these arguments.