After Roosevelt died , the new president Harry Truman established a highly visible President 's Committee on Civil Rights and issued Executive Order 9981 to end discrimination in the military in 1948 . A group of Southern governors such as Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Fielding L. Wright of Mississippi met to consider the place of Southerners within the Democratic Party . After a tense meeting with DNC chairman and Truman confidant J. Howard McGrath , the Southern governors agreed to convene their own convention in Birmingham if Truman and civil rights supporters emerged victorious at the 1948 Democratic National Convention . In July , the convention re-nominated Truman and adopted a plank proposed by Northern liberals led by Hubert Humphrey calling for civil rights ; 35 southern delegates walked out . The move was on to remove Truman 's name from the ballot in the southern United States . This political maneuvering required the organization of a new and distinct political party , which the Southern defectors from the Democratic Party chose to brand as the States ' Rights Democratic Party
1948 Democratic National Convention
1948 Democratic National Convention
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