Displaced Persons Act

The Displaced Persons Act is identified in the account of Harry S. Truman’s 1948 legislative program as discriminatory against Catholics and Jews. Truman called for its amendment during a special session of Congress, placing the law among a wider set of domestic measures he continued to press despite earlier rejections.

The Act in Truman’s Program

Truman included a change to the Displaced Persons Act in an eight-point program presented to Congress. The account describes the law as discriminating against Catholics and Jews; it does not specify the provisions responsible for that discrimination or the precise amendment Truman proposed.

The 1948 Appeal

The request came amid Truman’s renewed effort to secure measures Congress had already denied. His program also called for civil-rights action, consumer-credit controls, stronger rent and price controls, housing measures, farm support, aid to education, and a higher minimum wage. The Displaced Persons Act proposal was thus one element of a broad legislative challenge, not an isolated appeal.

Reception and Outcome

Congress received Truman coolly: some members did not rise when he entered to address them. The two-week session accomplished little. The account presents that limited result as reinforcing Truman’s argument that a Republican Congress obstructed social progress, but it does not establish that the Displaced Persons Act was amended or otherwise changed.