en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayford_Logan
1 correction found
Logan drafted Roosevelt's executive order prohibiting the exclusion of blacks from the military in World War II.
This misdescribes Roosevelt's order. Executive Order 8802 addressed discrimination in defense-industry and government employment, while military desegregation came later under Truman's Executive Order 9981 in 1948.
Full reasoning
The article attributes to Roosevelt an executive order that supposedly prohibited the exclusion of Black people from the military during World War II. The National Archives' text of Executive Order 8802 shows that this is not what Roosevelt's order did.
According to the National Archives, Executive Order 8802 (June 25, 1941) prohibited discrimination in defense industries and government employment and created the Fair Employment Practice Committee. Its text says there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin.
The National Archives separately explains that military desegregation came later, when President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, banning segregation in the Armed Forces. That same Archives page explicitly contrasts Truman's 1948 military order with Roosevelt's 1941 Executive Order 8802.
So even if Logan played a role in civil-rights advocacy around Roosevelt's order, the article's description is wrong: Roosevelt's order was not the order that ended exclusion/segregation in the U.S. military.
2 sources
- Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry (1941) | National Archives
In June of 1941, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, banning discriminatory employment practices by federal agencies and all unions and companies engaged in war-related work... there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin.
- Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948) | National Archives
On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order banning segregation in the Armed Forces... During World War II, President Roosevelt had responded... by issuing Executive Order 8802 in June 1941. It directed that Black Americans be accepted into job-training programs in defense plants, forbid discrimination by defense contractors...