Editor’s note: The below caption and cited report includes language now considered offensive and dated.

Frankfurt, Germany, Mar. 22, 1948: A reception was held for a group of visiting newspaper editors, all hailing from newspapers geared towards the Black community in the U.S. From left to right: Thomas Young, editor of the Norfolk Journal and Guide; James Devlin, president of the Frankfurt Press Center; Clifford W. Mackay, managing editor of the Baltimore Afro-American, and Robert Haeger, president of the Frankfurt Press Center. Young is also president of the Negro Newspaper Publishers’ Association.

The reception was part of a 17-day tour of the U.S. zones of Germany and Austria.

The group of visiting newspapermen further consisted of Frank Stanley, of the Louisville Defender; William Walker, of the Cleveland Call; Carl Murphy, of the Afro-American newspapers; Louis Martin, of the Detroit Chronicle; Dowdal Davis, of the Kansas City Call; William G. Nunn, of the Pittsburgh Courier; Carier Wesley, of the Houston Informer.

At the invitation of the Secretary of the Army, seven of the men completed an inspection tour of troop installations and military government centers, focusing on the conditions, well being and morale of Black troops and “to observe the degree to which Army policy is moving in the direction of desirable integration of the Negro soldier on an individual as well as unit basis.”

The report they published was made public by the U.S. Army in May of 1948 and can be found here.

The visit came a month after President Truman’s historic Feb. 2, 1948 speech before Congress in which he called for a series of legislative proposals based on the findings in To Secure These Rights, the landmark report. On July 26, 1948 Truman would sign Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the U.S. Armed Forces.