The Federal Government in the United States is divided into three branches, Legislative; Congress, Executive; President and Judicial; The Supreme Court. The Supreme Court therefore forms part of the Federal Government. The Federal Government played a significant part to change the status of African Americans from 1945 to 1968 in the sense that the Presidents during this period; Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson all started to become more involved in improving Civil Rights for Black Americans and passing acts. Eisenhower passed the Civil rights Act of 1957, Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and there were others which showed African Americans that progress was being made. The Presidents clearly initiated a change in America making sure de jure became de facto. However, there were many flaws in the work of the Federal Government and there were other factors which changed the status for African Americans such as the impact of the Second World War and the actions of the NAACP.
President Harry Truman (1945-1953), established a liberal civil rights committee to investigate the violence against blacks. A report was produced called “To Secure These Rights” which underlined the problems that African Americans faced during this period. It said that the USA could not claim to lead the free world if Blacks were not equal. This proved that the Federal Government did play a part in changing the status for Black Americans as a previously racist President was motivated to change the way Blacks were treated which was a big step towards social equality. Moreover, in 1948, Truman ended segregation in the armed forces by signing the Executive Order 9981 which guarantied equality and opportunity for all persons ion the armed forces without regard to race, colour, religion or national origin. Again this proved that there was change for Blacks because segregation was now