Educator Resources

Jackie Robinson, Civil Rights Advocate

TELEGRAM
JACKIE ROBINSON TO E. FREDERICK MORROW
AUGUST 13, 1957


Jackie Robinson sent this message to 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 race leaders such as Ralph Bunche, A. Philip Randolph, and the publishers of the popular black newspapers--the Chicago Defender, [Baltimore] Afro-American, and the [New York] Amsterdam News--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.

 

 

Telegram to President Eisenhower
Click to Enlarge

Dwight D. Eisenhower Library
White House Central Files
Box 733
File: OF-142-A-5


 

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