AUSTIN, Texas — A symposium commemorating the 50th anniversary of Executive Order 9981, which integrated the United States armed forces, will be hosted by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs on The University of Texas at Austin campus on April 16.
The 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. event, titled “The Military, Equal Opportunity, and AmericaÌs Promise,” will be held in the Lyndon B. Johnson Auditorium, located in Sid Richardson Hall. Admission is free and open to the public and parking is available on the LBJ Library and Museum parking lot. Registration is required and participation is limited.
In signing Executive Order 9981, President Harry S. Truman declared that the policy of the government was “equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.”
Symposium discussions will focus on why the military was the first major American institution to adopt equal opportunity, why minorities are better represented in the military than in American higher education institutions, how the military views “diversity,” and keys for adapting the military’s success to civilian America.
Participants will hear from numerous speakers representing military, private sector and academic America. Speakers will include Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre; Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Rudy F. DeLeon; Gen. Lloyd Newton, commander of the Air Education and Training Command; Dana G. Mead, chairman and chief executive officer of Tenneco; and Admiral Paul Reason, commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet.
Website information can be found at http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/administration/profdev/military. For additional details, contact Anneliese Geis of the LBJ SchoolÌs Office of Conferences and Training at (512) 471-0820 or e-mail: a.geis@mail.utexas.edu.
