On December 5, 1946 President Harry Truman established The President’s Committee on Civil Rights to investigate the status of civil rights in the United States and propose measures to strengthen and protect the civil rights of American citizens. In October 1947 the Committee submitted its findings to President Truman in the form of a 178-page report titled To Secure These Rights: The Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights. The report narrowed down the main rights of American citizens to four: The Right to Safety and Security of the Person, The Right to Citizenship and its Privileges, The Right to Freedom of Conscience and Expression, and The Right of Equality and Opportunity. The report found that the American reality was falling incredibly short of the American ideal in the realm of civil rights. The Committee found numerous instances in the country where people’s four main rights where violated as a result of race, color, religion, or social position. At no point does the document mention a violation of the four basic rights due to gender. While To Secure These Rights is a momentous document in our history and one of the rare instances when our flaws and hypocrisies were put in front of us at the behest of our president, we find that the document is only useful to us as a starting point when investigating the development and impact of Title IX. We’ve analyzed the document and identified segments that are relevant to the violation of civil rights due to gender. Please click on the slideshow below to hear these excerpts.
In the clip below President Harry S. Truman mentions the impact of To Secure These Rights in his farewell address.
Although the document states that people may not be denied any of their four basic rights due to their race, color, creed, and national origin, there is no mention of gender. However, If we look at the wording of the document, specifically at the excerpt below:
We believe that federal funds, supplied by taxpayers all over the nation, must not be used to support or perpetuate the pattern of segregation in education, public housing, public health services, or other public services and facilities generally. We recognize that these services are indispensable to individuals in modern society and to further social progress.and then compare to the wording for Title IX:
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance...
—20 United States Code Section 1681We can see that the ideas that Title IX is based on are the very same ones mentioned in To Secure These Rights in The Right to Equality and Opportunity section of the document. Although gender discrimination is not mentioned in To Secure These Rights Title, the document is definitely a worthwhile starting point to analyze Title IX.
In the clip below President Harry S. Truman mentions the impact of To Secure These Rights in his farewell address.
