History was given a salute under the State House dome.
With Monday marking 75 years since President Harry Truman ordered an end to segregation by race among the nation’s armed forces, Gov. Maura Healey called together members of the state’s National Guard and veterans of past conflicts to celebrate the occasion and call for a further commitment on fighting racism and inequity.
Healey, flanked by Tuskegee Airman Brig. Gen. Enoch “Woody” Woodhouse and the state’s newly appointed and first Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Dr. Jon Santiago, juxtaposed the occasion with this week’s start of the first National Association for the Advancement of Colored People National Convention to be held in the city in over four decades.
“We thought that there was no better way to begin this historic week in the city of Boston, in the state of Massachusetts, than by honoring the veterans of color, who not only fought for their own rights, but whose service made all of our freedoms possible,” she said.
Santiago, a medical doctor who is also a Major in the U.S. Army Reserve, said that though the country has made strides towards equality both in and out of uniform, the work continues.
“It was on this day, 75 years ago, that President Truman issued that remarkable order,” Santiago said. “While we’ve come a long way in racial issues, there’s still so much more to do.”
Truman ended segregation of the armed services with the signing of Executive order 9981 on July 26, 1948, though it would take many more years for the various branches to institute the order.
Citing a need to carry the promises of the Constitution into public service, Truman’s order is said to have paved the way for following decades of civil rights advancement.
“Whereas it is essential that there be maintained in the armed services of the United States the highest standards of democracy, with equality of treatment and opportunity for all those who serve in our country’s defense … it is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that 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 order read.
Rep. Bud Williams, chair of the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus, reminded the audience that desegregation had not prevented minorities from participating in armed service, where they had served their country for centuries without equal treatment in or out of uniform.
“This integration has made America,” Williams said. “Integration works, it makes us better, it makes us stronger.”
“It fulfills what the Constitution is supposed to be all about,” he said.
Woodhouse, 96, straight-backed and squared away in his service uniform, thanked Gov. Healey for the recognition of the occasion.
“I was reluctant to do this because it’s not protocol. But Governor, you’re not protocol — you do the right thing,” the oldest living Tuskegee Airman said.
