From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
And I'm Michele Norris.
Hugo Black, Harold Burton, Tom Clark, William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
Robert Jackson, Sherman Minton, Stanley Reed, Earl Warren.
NORRIS:
Fifty years ago today, these nine men, justices of the United States
Supreme Court, announced their decision in the cases known as Brown vs.
Board of Education of Topeka.
BLOCK: A
half-century later, their condemnation of separate schools for black
and white children is seen as a turning point in the nation's history.
'In the field of public education,' they wrote, 'the doctrine of
separate but equal has no place. Separate educational facilities are
inherently unequal.'
NORRIS: Those words
marked the beginning of a long struggle, a struggle that continues
today to live up to the promise of equal access to education for all
Americans. Throughout this year, we've aired stories examining the
legacy and the unfinished work of Brown vs. Board.
BLOCK:
Today, we turn back to the America of 1954. Then, as now, many people
weren't on familiar terms with the names of their Supreme Court
justices, but they did know the name of their president. And in the
days and weeks after May 17th, 1954, Americans by the hundreds picked
up pencils or pens or sat down at typewriters to tell Dwight D.
Eisenhower what they thought.
NORRIS: Of
course few, if any, of those letters were ever seen by the president.
Most were filed away along with the millions of other papers a
presidency accumulates. Today, the letters are at the Eisenhower
Library in Abilene, Kansas. Here, read by actors, are excerpts from a
few of them. A warning: Some of the language is pretty rough.
Unidentified
Woman #1: May 26th, 1954. My dear Mr. President, we have always been
admirers of yours and naturally voted for you. But when you revealed
your tendency toward no segregation, well, we just couldn't believe it.
Of course we believe in equal rights. Educate the Negroes, give them
advantages, but by all means, keep them to themselves. How would like
your lovely little granddaughter to marry a Negro and bring little
colored babies home to you? That's exactly what will happen if no
segregation is allowed to stand. Thank you for your kind attention, and
with very best wishes to you and your charming wife, I am, sincerely,
Ms. Ann H. Grinham, Coral Gables, Florida.
Unidentified
Man #1: President Eisenhower, no animallike niggers are going to sit
with my children in Newark, New Jersey. All we have is rape, muggings,
murder from these blacks. They don't understand decency. We must have
segregation for these dogs. John Ballentine, Newark, New Jersey.
Unidentified
Woman #2: Dear Mr. President, I am an American Negro woman. I now feel
like a first-class citizen for the first time in my life. I want to
thank you for helping my people. May God bless you and keep you always
to do good. I am very truly yours, Beulah Bryant, Lewiston, Maine.
Unidentified
Woman #3: May 22nd, 1954. Dear President Eisenhower, the American
people are growing up. When I read of the United States Supreme Court
ruling of segregation as unconstitutional, I was truly proud to be an
American living in a nation where men are not afraid to strive for
justice and decency. It is thrilling to know that there are some people
who carry over Sunday's sermon into Monday's living. I should like to
say that I am going to be an elementary school teacher within the next
year, and I shall be happy--yes, proud--to stand before a
non-segregated class. Most sincerely, June Rice, Gainesville, Florida.
Unidentified
Woman #4: Mr. Eisenhower, I was born and raised in the South and am
proud of it. I don't approve of this segregation ruling. I have a
daughter staring to school in September. I'm asking you to please do
something about it. You should know how dirty and low-down Negroes are.
Please help us in the South and don't let it be with a racial war.
Sincerely, Mrs. Ruth B. Moody, Memphis Eight(ph), Tennessee.
Unidentified
Man #2: Dear Mr. President, yesterday I took a large part of my family,
which is white, for a picnic and to the zoo. We had our lunch with us
but found every table filled with niggers and no table for white folks.
We had to sit on the ground in the woods to eat. After lunch, I sat on
a bench to rest, but lo and behold, three nigger gals stopped and asked
me if I would share my seat with them. And I told them to take the
whole darn bench, got up and walked off. I gave up my seat that time,
but the next time I'll refuse to get up. No seat on a bench is big
enough for a nigger and me. I'm 69 years old and nearly blind,
cataracts in both eyes, but I still have too much self-respect to mix
with colored people in a public place. George Skaggs, Lower Marlboro,
Maryland.
Unidentified Woman #5: Dear Mr.
President, as a lifelong Southerner, I wish to express to you my deep
gratification over the momentous decision on segregation rendered
yesterday by the Supreme Court and for inviting the South itself to
help in charting a course of orderly transition. Respectfully yours,
Josephine Wilkins(ph).
Unidentified Woman
#6: July 13th, 1954. Sir, I am a true, loyal, red-blooded American
citizen, love my God and country and fellow man enough to fight for it
again to keep Negroes and whites in their places. I am not a Negro
fighter, as a Negro has a soul the same as anyone else. But if God had
intended for us to live with them, he would have made them all white or
all of us black. May God have mercy on the leaders of our nation. Z.T.
Duncan, Tampa, Florida, a true red-blooded American Christian Southern
citizen.
Unidentified Man #3: Dear sir,
the recent victory of declaring the act of segregation illegal by the
nation's highest court has brought joy to millions of your fellow
countrymen. Many think this is a great victory for our Negro leaders
and associates, but I think the great victory belongs to America
itself. It proves to everyone that democracy is a vital force in our
nation's affairs. I'm sure the Negro soldiers of our wars, especially
the deceased who fought and died under your command, will declare that
you, their great commander in chief, is worthy of all the praises that
can be bestowed on anyone. Yours respectfully, sir, Robert D.
Pittman(ph) Jr., Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Unidentified
Woman #7: Dear Mr. President, I am a University of Tennessee student
and will be 21 in two weeks. I am very upset over this segregation
question, as are my sorority sisters and many, many other students to
whom I have talked. We are sick and tired of this horrible mess some
people in Washington are making of our country. Don't you understand?
The races cannot be mixed and have anything good come of it. I consider
myself a good Christian girl. I believe in being good to the Negroes.
Most Southerners do. We have a Negro maid who has been with us since I
was two years old. We've always been extra good to her. How do you
think she repays us? She steals money, steals food. She gets angry and
sasses us all and deliberately breaks something, usually an
irreplaceable antique. She just told us she wasn't going to work on
Sunday anymore. Now what do you think of that, Mr. President?
Sincerely, Margaret Chodder(ph), Redfield, Arkansas.
Unidentified
Woman #8: Honorable President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the White House,
Washington, DC. Dear Mr. President, I'm a Democrat and I never thought
I'd be writing to a Republican president to congratulate him on passing
the anti-segregation laws in the schools. I'm of the white race and I
have four growing children. It's been extremely difficult for me to
raise my children to be unbiased when I live in a community where there
is segregation in the schools. I only wish that this had happened
before they were born, so they could see what democracy really should
be like. Mercedes J. Philips(ph), Catonsville 28, Maryland.
Unidentified
Woman #9: May 19th, 1954. My dear Mrs. Eisenhower, it is not the
colored people themselves that the Southern white people object to. It
is their terrible low moral standard and their extremely high disease
rate and filth. As you know, if have ever lived in the South among the
colored race here or had time to look up any statistics on the matter,
there are almost no Negroes without a venereal disease, head lice,
itch, ringworm and other troubles which result directly from
carelessness, filth and low morals. Very sincerely, and may God bless
you and help you with the many problems you face as our first lady.
Mrs. Anita Cleveland.
Unidentified Woman
#10: Dear Mr. President, congratulations on one more step toward
communism or fascism in a godless era. Grace Lumpkin(ph).
Unidentified
Girl: June 2nd, 1954. Mr. Dwight D. Eisenhower, president of the United
States. Dear sir, I would like to congratulate you on your success in
passing the law about Negroes going to public schools. I would like to
know if there's any difference between the white race and the Negro
race and why some parents disagree with having white and Negro children
go to school together. Respectfully, Sara Jane Goodwin, age 10,
Burbank, California.
(Soundbite of music)
BLOCK:
Letters to President Eisenhower written in the days and weeks after the
Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education. You can
hear more of the letters and other stories on the legacy of the Brown
decision at our Web site, npr.org.
Document 4 of 4. 