Quote:
Originally Posted by PhiGam
He was a member in Jackon County, Missouri. Look it up if you don't believe me. Even though he wasn't a member for long, he was in contact with the leader of the KKK throughout his career. It was a very important endorsement for a democrat to receive at the time.
Most of the leaders who made strides for civil rights were white supremacists... Lincoln, LBJ, Truman
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This is a book I have read (1 of them) about Truman:
From "Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks"
Despite the racist culture that permeated Missouri in the post-Civil War environment of his youth,
Truman evolved into a man who was not put off by a person's lesser economic status or skin color. During his early, life-defining experiences as a frail student devouring Roman classics, then as a young firmer stoically laboring a dozen hours a day on the family's farm, and later as an army captain leading the rowdy Battery D during the final months of World War I, Truman grew to understand and enjoy his fellow man. He was as comfortable with farmhands and brawling Irish American laborers as he was with the reserved no-nonsense teetotalers of Independence's best churches. He simply liked people, and as a veteran of World War I, he appreciated the enormity of the sacrifice that each soldier and sailor was prepared to make to preserve the democratic way of life guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. That same Constitution became Truman's solid anchor when he entered politics in the early 1920s.
And from that point forward—throughout Truman's life, both private and public—it was his Constitution-grounded belief in the equality of opportunity and civil rights for all Americans that shaped Truman's words and actions.
When thirty-eight-year-old Harry Truman first sought elective office as a Jackson County judge in 1922, he was schooled not only in the Constitution but in the dogged ways of the KKK—a revitalized Klan that had a formidable presence in Independence and throughout Jackson County, Missouri. As Truman campaigned in the summer of 1922 for the position of county judge—a largely non-legal job that included the management of Jackson County's road construction program—the Klan in Missouri was flexing its political muscle. The Jackson Examiner of July 14, 1922, focused on the newfound potency of the Klan, reporting in a front-page story that
within three miles of Independence just off one of the main roads toward the south was held Thursday night a Ku Klux Klan meeting. It is said that a class of 200 mostly from Independence was initiated.
The meeting was on a country lawn. Cars, most of them from Kansas City, lined the roads leading to the farm. Guards in white caps and white wraps stopped every machine seeking entrance. Only those properly identified were permitted to pass. The guards remained on duty during the proceedings. A number present by invitation got their first ideas of the order and many familiar faces from Independence were in the crowd.
An address was made to the entire audience by "Mr. Jones." The speaker stated that this was the first open air meeting held in Jackson County. He told of the purposes of the order and explained the objects of the Klan.
The Klan's opposition to Truman's candidacy for the county judgeship was later confirmed by the Independence Examiner of November 6, 1922, which reported that
men stood Sunday morning at the doors of several protestant Churches in Independence as the people were leaving after the service and passed out pink "Sample Ballots." When asked what it meant the answer was "100 Per Cent" American: It sounded like Andy Gump's great slogan, "I wear no man's collar." It was the Ku Klux Klan ballot.
On the county ticket on this ballot only one Democratic nominee is endorsed. Judge O. A. Lucas for circuit judge. Opposite each name on the ticket is a paragraph which purports to give the religious affiliation of the candidate. Opposite the name of Judge Lucas is printed "Church affiliation, protestant, Record Good." ...
Opposite the name of Harry Truman the Democratic nominee for County Judge appears "Church affiliation, protestant, endorsed by Tom and Joe." ...
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The Tom and Joe referred to are two Roman Catholic Political-Bosses who dominate and control political affairs and Government of Kansas City and Jackson County."
This would indicate that no candidate is endorsed who has the support of "Tom and Joe." ... Harry Truman is the one man on the ticket who was not endorsed by the fifty-fifty agreement, was bitterly opposed at the primary by the Shannon faction and only supported by the Pendergast faction after he had been out campaigning for some months....
An advertisement appears on the front page of this paper ... which announces, "Klansmen, special meeting tonight. Independence Klan."
While the Klan failed to defeat Truman in his first campaign in 1922, their power to intimidate blacks in Jackson County was a reality that Truman experienced firsthand in his first campaign for elective office, and it was a lesson in racism that stayed with Truman as he progressed from county judge to U.S. senator to vice president serving under the frail President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
On April 12, 1945, Vice President Harry Truman's life changed dramatically with President Roosevelt's death. Not only was Truman stunned, but the nation, still at war in Europe and the Pacific, was traumatized with grief. With FDR's death, the nation lost far more than a president who had led the nation for thirteen years. For many Americans, including African Americans, the nation lost a comforting and articulate father. In his place was a little-noticed politician from Missouri—a border state automatically viewed with suspicion by many black Americans who, like Truman, knew of the Klan's longtime presence in Missouri.
Hybrid Mode
