Military surveyed troops about integration in the 1940s, then Truman ignored the study and lifted the ban anyway

Now we know. Yes, they did do a survey of the troops in the 1940s to see how white troops felt about integrating with black troops. The white service members overwhelmingly said "no." Yet later in the decade, Truman ordered the services fully integrated anyway.

So now we have our historical precedent. You survey the troops, then you move ahead with ending the bigoted, discriminatory policy anyway. Any deviation from this historical precedent would be evidence of caving to bigotry. I guess we'll know in December which side of history the President Obama will choose to come down on.