VI. Conclusion

It is not my claim that rights consciousness on the part of black soldiers and civilians alone was the sole reason for Executive Order 9981. Presidential electoral politics, 1 a concurrent court victory for *110 civil rights, and military manpower necessity were significant forces behind issuance of the order. However, the ability of A. Philip Randolph to combine these factors into a cohesive effort and use their combined momentum proved to be essential in the eventual presidential order. The CAJC and threat of civil disobedience would never have arisen had Executive Order 8802 adequately met the demands of the MOWM. Randolph's CAJC and Executive Order 9981 merely represented a continuation of Randolph's efforts in 1941. Although focused on equality of treatment and opportunity for black servicemen, the pursuit of the Four Freedoms and the fight for an Executive Order had positive social and judicial repercussions. Executive Order 9981, by announcing that segregation was inherently unequal in the context of the military, removed a significant brick in the wall of segregation built by Plessy v. Ferguson 1 and established momentum toward one of the most important civil rights decisions to date, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.