What role did civil rights for African Americans play in the election

What role did civil rights for African Americans play in the election of 1948?

What will be an ideal response?

ANSWER
The ideal answer should include:
1. Truman campaigned for reelection in 1948 on a platform of support for civil rights that was unprecedented in the White House.
2. In the summer of 1948 he ordered the desegregation of the armed forces and the federal civil service.
3. Alienated by the civil rights plank, white Southerners walked out of the Democratic convention and ran South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond as an independent candidate.
4. African American voters in Chicago, Cleveland, and other northern cities played a key role in swing states.
5. African American votes proved the difference in the election.