Cold War embarrassment and northern black migration forced the desegregation of the armed forces.

Evidence

Korematsu was a kind of low point. The times were changing. American apartheid was an embarrassment in the postwar period. It handed the Soviet Union, during the Cold War, a priceless weapon of propaganda. The colonial empires of Africa were dissolving, and black sovereign nations appeared all over that continent. President Harry S. Truman, after the end of the Second World War, issued an order, as commander-​in-​chief, desegregating the armed forces. African-​Americans had migrated in great numbers to the northern states. In the North, they voted, and exerted, directly or indirectly, more influence on national politics than was possible in the South. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3907

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Cold War embarrassment drove the US government to defend Black civil rights. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 916; Soviet propaganda about US racism forced Cold War-era civil rights reforms — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 1275; Cold War competition pressured the US toward race-neutral governance. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 376 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Cold War competition pressured the US toward race-neutral governance. #expands (0.90) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 376
• Cold War geopolitics made American racism a national security liability. #expands (0.88)
• Cold War embarrassment drove the US government to defend Black civil rights. #expands (0.85) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 916
• Soviet propaganda about US racism forced Cold War-era civil rights reforms #corroborates (0.85) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1275