From 1947 through 1949, the red, white, and blue Freedom Train crisscrossed the United States, bringing the nation’s most important and treasured documents out of the National Archives and to the people. The seven cars of this “traveling shrine” covered 37,000 miles in 413 days, stopping in 322 cities to display its precious cargo, which included the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, Washington’s annotated copy of the Constitution, Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence, and Lincoln’s handwritten Gettysburg Address—127 documents in all.
Inspired by a 1946 exhibit at the National Archives that contrasted Nazi documents with American treasures such as the Bill of Rights, the Freedom Train set out to remind Americans of the ideals they fought for in World War II, to restore their faith in democracy, and to reinforce the superiority of the American way as a bulwark against the emerging COLD WAR threat of Soviet COMMUNISM. The project was endorsed by President Harry S. Truman and funded by the private sector, including movie studio executives, bankers, and most important, the Advertising Council directed by Thomas D’Arcy Brophy.
The Advertising Council, founded in 1942 as War Advertising Council, originated as government-private partnership to mobilize civilian support for World War II. When the war ended, many political and business leaders feared that complacency and a renewed sense of isolationism would overtake the American public. The private, postwar Advertising Council was in the business of “re-selling America to Americans.” Brophy was enlisted by the Justice Department to lead the nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational American Heritage Foundation (AHF), incorporated in 1947 to plan and execute the Freedom Train tour and related patriotic and educational events in each city, and to mount a massive media relations campaign.
Never before had so many of the nation’s defining documents been assembled in one place. The AHF and the National Archives assembled documents ranging from the Pilgrims’ Mayflower Compact to the log of the USS Missouri detailing the Japanese surrender in World War II. One railroad car grew to seven cars, and the train christened the “Spirit of 1776” set out on its two-year tour on September 17, 1947, departing from Philadelphia on the 160th anniversary of the signing of the U. S. Constitution. In addition to a massive print advertising campaign, the Freedom Train’s media and educational initiatives included community-organized “Rededication Weeks” in each destination city, free illustrated booklets entitled “Our American Heritage,” and an RKO Pictures film of the same name. The AHF even commissioned Irving Berlin to compose the song “Freedom Train,” which was recorded by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters.
Critics of the project, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and labor activists, protested the exclusion of documents such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802, which prohibited racial discrimination in government employment and the armed forces, the President’s Report on Civil Rights, the Wagner Labor Relations Act of 1935, documents related to women’s suffrage, and even the TRUMAN DOCTRINE. The AHF responded that the Freedom Train would not include any documents that were controversial, partisan, or related to pending legislation.
One controversy the Freedom Train could not avoid was the issue of segregation in the South. The cruel irony of asking black Americans to view the Emancipation Proclamation in a segregated railroad car was not lost on the AHF, African Americans, and even some white southerners. Langston Hughes and W. C. Handy composed their own sardonic spiritual, “Checkin’ on the Freedom Train,” that questioned separate entrances for black and white: “Is that the way to get aboard the Freedom Train?” Pressured by the NAACP, the AHF announced in May 1947 that the Freedom Train would be open to all Americans regardless of race and would not abide by local segregation laws; any city that refused to comply would be left off the tour. As a result, tour stops were canceled in both Memphis, Tennessee, and Birmingham, Alabama.
The Freedom Train reached tens of millions of Americans in the North, South, East, and West, ending its tour back in Philadelphia in January 1949. More than 3 million people boarded the Freedom Train, and approximately 50 million people participated in related events such as taking the Freedom Pledge and signing the Freedom Scroll.
Further reading: Michael Kammen, Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture (New York: Knopf, 1991); Daniel L. Lykins, From Total War to Total Diplomacy: The Advertising Council and the Construction of the Cold War Consensus (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2003).
—Melissa M. Mandell
World History
