After WW2 many Americans felt a new awareness of the suffering of many minorities.
Truman too, felt this and in 1947, he created a national committee to examine the status of minority rights in the US.
- The committee aimed to determine whether current law-enforcement measures and authority of both the federal and state governments could be improved to ‘safeguard the civil rights of the people.’
- Whilst the report was largely focused on AA civil rights, NAs also appeared in the final recommendation.
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- 400,000 NAs lived on reservations during this time.
- 1947 the death rate of NAs from tuberculosis is 10x that of whites.
The ‘To Secure these Rights’ report called on Arizona and New Mexico to grant suffrage to their Indian citizens.
