In 1946 the President set up a committee on Civil Rights to investigate and make recommendations on the subject. At the end of 1947, the committee issued the historic Report on Civil Rights: "To secure these Rights." Here, the committee gave a series of suggestions. The salient features of this report were :

1. reorganization and strengthening of Civil Rights section in the Justice Department.
2. establishment of federal and state permanent commissions on Civil Rights so as to maintain constant surveillance on it.

3. federal and state laws to be enacted to end Jim Crow laws and other forms of racial segregation.
4. to enact federal legislation making police brutality, lynching and all forms of peonage illegal.
5. to withhold federal grants-in-aid from public and private agencies that practice discrimination and segregation.

The Civil Rights proposals caused sharp reactions in the Congress and a deep rift within Truman’s Democratic party. Though the President was unable to formulate legislations on the basis of the suggestions, he strengthened the Civil Rights section of the Department of Justice.

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Table of Contents

11.0 - Chronology of Major Events in this Period
11.1 - Conditions at Home
11.2 - The Employment Act
11.3 - The Taft-Hartley Labor Management Relations Act
11.4 - The Truman's Civil Rights Program
11.5 - The McCarthy Period
11.6 - The Cold War Abroad
11.7 - The Korean War
11.8 - The Eisenhower Administration
11.9 - The Civil Rights movement and the question of Desegregation
11.10 - The Labor Reform act
11.11 - The Budget
11.12 - The Economy in the 60s
11.13 - The Communist Threat Abroad
11.14 - The Threat of Nuclear War
11.15 - The Exploration of Outer Space
11.16 - The Geneve Conference on Disarmament
11.17 - Our WorldToday