Given his background, President Truman was an unlikely champion of civil rights. Where he grew up--the border state of Missouri--segregation was accepted and largely unquestioned. Both his maternal and paternal grandparents had owned slaves, and his mother, victimized by Yankee forces, railed against Abraham Lincoln for the remainder of her ninety-four years. When Truman assumed the presidency on April 12, 1945, Michael R. Gardner points out, Washington,...
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20th Century African-American & Black Civil Rights & Liberties Elections & Political Process Ethnic & National History Leaders & Notable People Modern (16th-21st Centuries) Political Science Politics & Government Politics & Social Sciences Presidents & Heads of State Specific Topics