(Photo: Landov)

President Harry Truman signed Executive Order No. 9808, establishing the President’s Committee on Civil Rights in 1946. The committee was to evaluate the state of civil rights, and make recommendations "with respect to the adoption or establishment, by legislation or otherwise, of more adequate and effective means and procedures for the protection of the civil rights of the people of the United States." Among those recommendations was to create a law prohibiting discrimination or segregation on public transportation.