This is Black History Month and Monday was observed as Presidents Day, so I ask: Which president demonstrated the most courage in standing up for African-Americans? John F. Kennedy? Lyndon B. Johnson? Jimmy Carter? Bill Clinton?

My vote is for none of the above. I cast my ballot for the plain-spoken and outspoken president from Missouri—Harry S Truman.

Yes, Truman. Unlike today’s Democrats, he was willing to take bold action on behalf of desegregating the military and the federal workforce at a time when his Republican opponents controlled both the House and Senate. Truman advisers feared that he was committing political suicide by being so supportive of African-Americans.

Truman’s support of civil rights is chronicled in an excellent book, “Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks, ” by Michael R. Gardner. Published by Southern Illinois University Press in Carbondale, the book jacket notes, “Given his background, President Truman was an unlikely champion of civil rights.

Where he grew up—the border state of Missouri—segregation was accepted and largely unquestioned. Both his maternal and paternal grandparents had owned slaves, and his mother, victimized by Yankee forces, railed against Abraham Lincoln for the remainder of her ninety-four years.”

Yet, Truman was able to rise above his background. He told an NAACP gathering in 1947, “We can no longer afford the luxury of a leisurely attack upon prejudice and discrimination … We cannot, any longer, await the growth of a will to action in the slowest state or the most backward community. Our national government must show the way.”

In many ways, a reflective look at Truman gives us a richer context in which to view retired Sen. Strom Thurmond’s decision (with Trent Lott’s belated approval) to bolt the Democratic Party in 1948 because it adopted a desegregation plank offered by then-Minneapolis Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey.

Writing to his sister, Mary Jane, on June 28, 1947, the day before he was to address the NAACP, Truman said: “I’ve got to make a speech for the Advancement of Colored People and I wish I didn’t have to make it…Mama won’t like what I say because I wind up by quoting old Abe. But I believe what I say and I’m hopeful we may implement it…”

In his speech, Truman vowed an immediate attack on segregation, a policy favored by many powerful Southerners in his party. The 12-minute speech, broadcast live on the four major radio networks in prime time, marked the first time a United States president had pledged his full support for civil rights.

A Gallup poll conducted six months later showed 82 percent of Americans opposed Truman’s civil rights program. But that did not stop him from acting.

Unable to persuade Congress to support him, including then-Congressman Lyndon D. Johnson of Texas, and upset with the reports of increasing violence directed against Black veterans returning from war, Truman issued two executive orders that would transform the face of the federal workforce.

On July 26, 1948, Truman issued Executive Order 9980 and 9981. The latter has received the most attention because it required the immediate desegregation of all military service branches. Dorothy Height, who served more than 40 years as president of the National Council of Negro Women, observed, “Harry Truman’s integration of the armed services represented the most significant advance for the civil rights of Black Americans since President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.”

Though it did not receive as much attention as its companion directive, Executive Order 9980 dramatically altered the composition of the federal workforce. It removed the policy of racial segregation in the federal workforce, which had been formalized in 1913 by President Woodrow Wilson. It also meant that the “Whites Only” signs would come down from the water fountains and restrooms in federal buildings.

“To insure that this mandate would take effect promptly in a federal employment environment rife with discrimination, the president put the heads of each federal department and agency—in effect, all members of his cabinet and other presidential appointees—on explicit notice that he would hold each one of them ‘personally responsible for an effective program to insure that fair employment policies are fully observed in all personnel actions within his department,’” the author noted.

Despite standing up for civil rights by going against the leaders of his own party and public opinion, Truman was re-elected in 1948 by defeating New York Gov. Thomas Dewey. Maybe today’s Democrats might experience similar success if they were to exhibit the courage of Harry Truman.