Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Dissertations Department of History Spring 5-5-2012 Forging the Civil Rights Frontier: How Truman's Committee Set the Liberal Agenda for Reform 1947-1965 Edith S. Riehm Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss Recommended Citation Riehm, Edith S., "Forging the Civil Rights Frontier: How Truman's Committee Set the Liberal Agenda for Reform 1947-1965." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2012. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss/30 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FORGING THE CIVIL RIGHTS FRONTIER: HOW TRUMAN’S COMMITTEE SET THE LIBERAL AGENDA FOR REFORM 1947-1965 by EDITH SHELBY RIEHM Under the Direction of Michelle Brattain ABSTRACT At the close of 1946, a year marked by domestic white-on-black violence, Harry S. Truman, in a dramatic move, established the President’s Committee on Civil Rights (PCCR). Five years be- fore, his predecessor Franklin D. Roosevelt had formed the Fair Employment Practices Commit- tee (FEPC), under pressure from civil rights groups mobilized against racial discrimination in the defense industry. The FEPC was the first major federal civil rights legislation since Reconstruc- tion. However, when race riots later erupted in cities across the country in 1943, Roosevelt ig- nored his staff's recommendation to appoint a national race relations committee. Instead, he agreed to a “maypole” committee, which was, in actuality, a decentralized network of individu- als, including Philleo Nash, whose purpose was to anticipate and diffuse urban racial tensions in order to avert further race riots. Superficially, Truman's PCCR seemed to resemble Roosevelt's rather conservative race relations strategy of appointing a committee rather than taking direct action under the authority of the federal government. But, as this project will argue, Truman's PCCR represented a major, historical change in the approach to civil rights that would have a profound effect on activists, such as Dorothy Tilly and Frank Porter Graham, and the movement itself. Where FDR's committees were created to avoid further racial confrontations, Truman’s committee invited and ignited controversy. Its groundbreaking report, To Secure These Rights (TSTR), unequivocally declared the federal government as the guardian of all Americans’ civil rights. In essence, Truman’s PCCR elevated the civil rights dialogue to a national level by re- casting the civil rights issue as an American problem rather than just a black-American problem. Moreover, TSTR attacked segregation directly, and challenged the federal government to take the lead by immediately desegregating the armed services. These radical recommendations came on- ly six years after a reluctant FDR formed the FEPC and six and one-half years before the Unites States’ Supreme Court’s landmark ruling, Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas and the ensuing backlash. Thus, Truman’s PCCR and TSTR, in 1947, forged a new “civil rights frontier.” INDEX WORDS: Civil rights, Human rights, Truman, Roosevelt, To Secure These Rights, Pres- ident’s Committee on Civil Rights, Dorothy Tilly, Frank P. Graham, Philleo Nash, Post-war civil rights FORGING THE CIVIL RIGHTS FRONTIER: HOW TRUMAN’S COMMITTEE SET THE LIBERAL AGENDA FOR REFORM 1947-1965 by EDITH SHELBY RIEHM A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2012 Copyright by Edith Shelby Riehm 2012 FORGING THE CIVIL RIGHTS FRONTIER: HOW TRUMAN’S COMMITTEE SET THE LIBERAL AGENDA FOR REFORM 1947-1965 by EDITH SHELBY RIEHM Committee Chair: Michelle Brattain Committee: Clifford M. Kuhn Glenn T. Eskew Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University May 2012 iv DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to the person that helped me through every step of this journey with unconditional encouragement, support, and love - my husband, Charlie Riehm. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My interest in the Civil Rights Movement began in 1987, when my mother, Margaret E. Holbrook, insisted that I join her and my father, Martin E. Holbrook, in watching a new PBS documentary, entitled “Eyes on the Prize.” She thought it would be important for me to watch this series because she believed it was a critical element of the country’s history and one that I had not experienced. My parents were involved in local politics and met many interesting and involved people. Their activism and the company they kept, coupled with the diverse population of the metro New York City area, exposed me and my siblings to people from all walks of life – rich, poor, black, white, people of all religions, national origins, and races. My parents’ exam- ples and the environment in which they raised me laid the foundation for my future interest in civil rights. Over the years, my parents’ influence has served me well and, while they are no longer living, I still thank them each and every day. This journey has been longer than anticipated, yet one that I have enjoyed immensely and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to many people. First, I must thank my under graduate advisor, Dr. Daniel J. Wilson of Muhlenberg College. When I decided to return for an advanced history degree, he agreed to write a letter of recommendation on my behalf. At the time I asked him if I should concentrate on the latest trends in history in order to be more marketable in my future job search. His advice was straightforward: he encouraged me to find a topic that I loved, which would ensure I would finish the program. As I had done many times as an undergraduate, I took his advice. Next, I also asked my “corporate world” manager at the time, Vicki Hoffman Robinson, to write me a letter of recommendation. In the short time I worked for Vicki (2.5 years or so) we became very good friends, and I learned a great deal from her – especially about vi how to go after what you want to do. I owe Vicki a huge thank you since she inspired me to look beyond what I was doing to the future, and to focus on what I was meant to do. I first had to get a master’s degree in history in order to qualify for Georgia State’s doc- torate program. Dr. John Matthews was the graduate advisor at the time, and as I completed the course work for my master’s degree, I selected him as my thesis advisor. When I was searching for a thesis topic, he thoughtfully guided me to Emory University’s Special Collections depart- ment, headed by his wife, Dr. Linda Matthews, and suggested I take a look at the collection of women’s manuscript collections. I hit the proverbial jackpot at Emory and found four female white civil rights activists about whom to write: Dorothy Tilly, Helen Bullard, Frances Pauley, and Connie Curry. I quickly amassed enough information to write hefty chapters on all, except Tilly. When I submitted my paltry 25-page chapter on Tilly to Dr. Matthews, he reminded me that he was expecting 50-page chapters on each of my four subjects. When I told him I was hav- ing trouble finding information about Tilly, he pointed me in the direction of the Atlanta Univer- sity Center, where I would find the Southern Regional Council Papers. He then confided to me that of all of my thesis subjects, he suspected that Dorothy Tilly was the most important – and that was correct. From that point on, I found more information on Tilly than I could have ever imagined, and I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to publish about her and her important work three times. She also figures prominently in this dissertation. Therefore I must thank Dr. Matthews for inspiring me to write about white women civil rights activists and for his expert guidance in my quest for information about Dorothy Tilly. At the time of my master’s thesis defense, a recent hire to Georgia State, Dr. Michelle Brattain, agreed to be the second reader for my thesis. When Dr. Matthews retired, Michelle became my advisor and she has become so much more than that over the years. She has been a vii teacher, colleague, mentor, confidante, cheerleader, and wonderful friend to me over the last twelve years. Michelle has read and commented on all of my publications, and I am indebted to her for the time she has generously given me and for the improvements she has made to my work, while she has pushed me to become a better historian. Her encouragement to publish, ap- ply for grants, apply for teaching jobs and, in general, to put myself “out there” as a historian has been an invaluable gift, so I am very grateful to her for all she has done to help me toward the Ph.D. degree and my career as a historian. This dissertation and my historian skills have also been significantly enhanced through the influence of the other members my dissertation committee: Dr. Clifford M. Kuhn and Dr. Glenn T. Eskew. I have truly benefitted from the assistance, guidance, and encouragement given to me from these two scholars over the years. Dr. Kuhn spent a great deal of time reviewing an earlier draft of this dissertation, which helped me tremendously in preparing it for the final steps, and for which I am greatly indebted to him.