Powell: We can perform

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks of the effects that President Truman’s Executive Order 9981 which integrated the Armed Forces had on him personally. “When I went in [to the Armed Forces] they no longer cared whether I was black or white, immigrant or not, the only thing my commanders ever told me from 1958 to the rest of my career was ‘can you perform?’ And that’s all we have ever asked for and throughout our history we have demonstrated, we can perform, let there be no doubt about it,” said Powell. (0:24)


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