Overall, how did the experiences of African-American troops differ between World War II and the Korean War?

July 26, 1948 was a red-letter day in American history. U.S. President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, desegregating the armed forces. Truman declared, “there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.” The president acted upon the wishes of many people, black and white, who believed that if African-Americans and other people of color served their country with honor, they should not be subjected to racial discrimination or violence.

Throughout his term in office, many African-American servicemen wrote the president about their harrowing experiences. Perhaps the most influential letter came from Isaac Woodard, Jr., a World War II veteran who, hours after being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army, was dragged off a bus and beaten until blind by police in Batesburg, South Carolina. Those stories had a profound effect on the president, who had grown up in a segregated Missouri town, and who had exhibited profound racism himself throughout his life. In response to Woodard’s blinding, Truman declared, “When a Mayor and City Marshal can take a negro Sergeant off a bus in South Carolina, beat him up and put out one of his eyes, and nothing is done about it by the State authorities, something is radically wrong with the system.” Truman’s bold action on civil rights was one factor leading to his upset defeat of Republican Thomas Dewey in the 1948 presidential election.

Just two years after Truman issued Executive Order 9981, North Korea invaded South Korea, putting the new policy to the test. Though the order had come from their Commander in Chief, many senior American military commanders simply ignored it. They had spent their entire careers training and fighting in a segregated army and weren’t going to integrate their units without a fight. So, even though the armed forces had officially been desegregated, artillery units like the 503rd Battalion remained all black.