MEDIA CONTACT: Stacia Smith
561-297-2971, ssmith@fau.edu

FAU Holds Second Annual Truman Symposium

BOCA RATON, FL (June 21, 2004) - More than 400 people attended Florida Atlantic University's second annual Truman Legacy Symposium, which recently took place at the Little White House in Key West. The two-day symposium examined Harry S. Truman's civil rights legacy. Truman created the first civil rights commission in 1946 and was responsible for desegregating the military in 1948.

Keynote speakers included former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis; Georgia Congressman John Lewis, organizer of Mississippi Freedom Summer and co-organizer of Martin Luther King's March on Washington; former Congresswoman Carrie Meek, Florida congresswoman for 20 years, and Truman's grandsons, Clifton Truman Daniel and Thomas Washington Daniel.

Among those in attendance were one of Truman's former secret service agents, one of Truman's advisors and his former secretary. Also in attendance was FAU President Frank Brogan.

The symposium was organized by Robert Watson of the political science department at FAU's Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters. The event was cosponsored by the Truman Presidential Library. Other sponsors included the Alan B. Larkin family and Monroe County in the Florida Keys.

The third annual Truman Legacy Symposium will be held next spring in Key West, and the theme will be Truman's Middle East Legacy. Truman was instrumental in U.S. support for the creation of Israel. Against the advice of many in the government of the time, he supported U.N. Resolution 181, which created Jewish and Palestinian states in Palestine.

For further information about the Truman Legacy Symposium, call Robert Watson at 561-297-3055.

-FAU-