#dwight eisenhower – @telegramsfromlastcentury-blog on Tumblr

September 2nd, 1955: Mamie Bradley, the mother of Emmett Till, sends this telegram to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, asking for his help to make sure that "justice is meted out" to those that killed her son. Till, a 14-year-old African-American from Chicago, had come to Money, Mississippi to visit relatives. He was brutally murdered by two white men for allegedly acting "too friendly" with a white girl, and his mother requested an open-casket funeral so that people would see the effects of the prevalent racism in the South. Unfortunately, an all-white jury failed to convict the murderers after only a few minutes deliberation and the men responsible later proudly confessed to the crime. The case was viewed as a turning point in the civil rights movement. Eisenhower, unlike many Republicans (and quite a few Democrats) of his time, strongly supported civil rights. (x)

#Dwight Eisenhower #Emmett Till #civil rights #1950s #today is the anniversary of Rosa Parks refusing to get off the bus so I thought a civil rights related post would be good

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research.archives.gov

Telegram, Jackie Robinson to E. Frederick Morrow, August 13, 1957

After he retired from baseball, Jackie Robinson went on to champion the cause of civil rights from his position as a prominent executive of the Chock Full o’Nuts Corporation. He sent this message to Eisenhower Presidential assistant E. Frederick Morrow in August 1957 as the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction was being negotiated between Congress and the Eisenhower administration. Public citizen Robinson—along with other civil rights leaders—considered the emerging final version of the 1957 Civil Rights Act too weak and urged Eisenhower to veto it. In the end, Eisenhower signed the bill.

Source: research.archives.gov

#civil rights #Jackie Robinson #Dwight Eisenhower #1950s

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Telegram from Louis Armstrong to Dwight Eisenhower, on September 24th, 1957, regarding the Little Rock Nine controversy, when nine African-American students were barred by the Arkansas National Guard from entering Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas due to their race and Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort them. (x)

#louis armstrong #dwight eisenhower #1950s #history #vintage #civil rights