The Fair Deal was the slogan that President Harry Truman applied to the 21-point program that he presented to Congress on September 5, 1945, to convert the economy from wartime to peacetime status. The message to Congress emphasized passage of the Full Employment Act to provide jobs for U.S. servicemen and servicewomen returning from World War II. When Congress passed the Employment Act of 1946 (dropping “Full” from the title), it converted the measure from a guarantee of employment into a bill creating an economic advisory system for the President.
In 1949, after winning reelection, Truman presented a State of the Union address that again referred to a Fair Deal program. He called for protecting the civil rights of black Americans by establishing a fair employment commission. He also proposed federal aid to education, more funding for public housing, national health insurance, an expansion of Social Security benefits, an increase in the minimum wage, new land reclamation and public power programs, and a program of technical assistance to underdeveloped nations.
See also Truman, Harry S.
Sources
- Alonzo Hamby, Beyond the New Deal (New York: Columbia University Press, 1973)


