President Harry Truman played a significant role in advancing civil rights for African Americans during his presidency. In 1948, Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the armed forces and marked an important step towards racial equality within the military. This was a groundbreaking move that paved the way for further desegregation efforts in other areas of American society.

Truman also established the President's Committee on Civil Rights in 1946, which issued a landmark report in 1947 recommending a series of measures to end segregation and discrimination in the United States. He became the first president to address the NAACP and advocated for federal anti-lynching legislation, although he was ultimately unsuccessful in getting it passed by Congress.

President Truman's support for civil rights was ahead of its time and set the stage for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. He is remembered as a president who took a stand against racial injustice and worked towards creating a more inclusive and equitable society for all Americans, including African Americans.