The conversation about race in America took center stage in 1948 in a way that had not happened in the nation until then. President Harry Truman issued an executive order, intending to end discrimination in the armed services and in the federal workforce. He made those changes in an election year.
The decision further fractured the Democratic party. After an address supporting civil rights by U.S. Senate candidate Hubert Humphrey, some Southern Democrats walked out of the party’s national convention to start their own political party, the States Rights Democrats which became known as the Dixiecrats.
All of this happened with a backdrop of dramatic world events, including the Soviet Union’s attempt to blockade Berlin, the declaration of Israel as a nation, and the firm belief by columnists and pundits that Harry Truman did not have a chance at winning. Republican Thomas Dewey would be the winner and the election was just a formality.
Using interviews conducted 25 years ago and updates from historians today, Lester Graham wrote and produced an hour-long documentary that brings that political contest from 75 years ago to life.
Archived audio from the Republican candidate and the three candidates that emerged from the divided Democratic party is complemented by insights by the people who participated.
Truman aide George Elsey describes the behind the scenes decisions on the Truman train as it crisscrossed the nation. Margaret Truman remembers key moments in the campaign. Reporters, including long-time Washington D.C. journalist, Fred Fiske, Kansas City Star reporter Walt Bodine, and then United Press reporter Walter Cronkite relive moments from the 1948 campaign.
Rounding out the narrative are historians David McCullough who won a Pulitzer for his biography of Truman and Richard Norton Smith who wrote Dewey’s biography.
The Dixiecrat candidate, J. Strom Thurmond gave his recollection of his reasoning for departing the Democratic party in a recording by Graham a few years before his death.
The documentary is a critical reminder of where we’ve been and gives context to how far America has to go before it realizes the promise of equal treatment under the law.
