Although he had long enjoyed a friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt and her support for his cause, Walter White had little success in convincing Franklin Roosevelt to help on civil rights issues.  Once Harry S. Truman became president White did not know what to expect.  In Truman he would find an ally and a president who would put civil rights on his agenda.  Truman would eventually desegregate the military, establish a Fair Employment Commission, create a Civil Rights Committee that would issue a far reaching call for civil rights in its report and become the first American president to address the NAACP's Annual Conference.  In exchange White became a staunch supporter of Truman's election in 1948 and a reluctant supporter of many of Truman's Cold War and foreign policies.

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