Executive Order 9981, issued by President Harry S. Truman, desegregated which institution?

• A. The Supreme Court
• B. The United States Military
• C. Public schools
• D. Federal Civil Service

Answer: (B)

The action being tested is the desegregation of the armed forces by presidential mandate. Executive Order 9981, signed by Truman in 1948, declared that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the U.S. armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin. This made the military the first large national institution to begin desegregation, setting a powerful precedent during the early Cold War era and showing the federal government’s commitment to civil rights even before broader civil rights laws were passed.

Why this is the best choice: only the military was explicitly targeted by this order, and its purpose was to end racial segregation within the U.S. armed forces across all branches. The other options involve entities that either desegregated through different means (for example, public schools desegregated by Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education) or had desegregation processes that were not prompted by this particular executive order. The order’s direct impact was the desegregation of the U.S. military.