secondary status in the military during the war. White officers in command of African American units frequently reported that their soldiers performed with excellence, even though they were almost always given less favorable assignments than their white counterparts. This helped convince Truman that the practice of segregation had no place in the military.

When looking at actions in addition to Executive Order 9981, Truman's civil rights agenda was rather muted. On December 5, 1946, he created the President's Committee on Civil Rights to investigate the status of civil rights in general in the United States. One year after its creation, the committee submitted a report with its findings and recommendations and was disbanded. Truman ignored some of the committee's recommendations and passed others along to Congress. He acted directly on two of the recommendations by desegregating the federal workforce and desegregating the military. These moves were not politically expedient for Truman, and his actions caused serious rifts in the Democratic Party. However, Truman is credited with setting a tone of presidential involvement in civil rights that lasted decades.

Even though Truman's critics argue that he could have done more to further the cause of civil rights, he did help set the movement into motion at the federal level. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Johnson, Truman was given credit for showing what a president could do in the name of ending discriminatory practices.