Letter from John Thurber Coates to President Harry S. Truman

Fill COLLEGE COLL EGE NEW SBURG. YORK 200 00-2-48 Pro John T. Coates Cumberland Hall, Room 69 Champlain College Plattsburg, N.Y. 6 February, 1948 My Dear Mr. President; I wish to take this opportunity to tell you of my hearty approval and endorsement of your "Bill of Rights" program which you recently advocated. My travels in the south while in service showed me the terrible need for legislation which you favor. The south has long ignored the free and equal status given all men by the Federal Constitution, but it has been the bane of policy politics which, for the gather- ing of votes, allow "Jim Crowisms" to continue. At this point I should like to ask you, Mr. President, whether or not you are sincere in your wishes to abolish these crimes in America or do you intend to, at some near future date, appease the Southern gentlemen by choosing one of them as your running mate? I well realize that I am taking for granted that you will choose to run once more, and so my question is based on that belief. You rose a great deal in my esteem when you asserted yourself on the civil rights program, Mr. President, and now it is my sincere hope that you will justify my added faith in you by not trying in any way to appease the "solid south. 11 I firmly believe that if you were to stand by your legislation on behalf of the common man, that even tho' you were to lose what ever the south had to offer, you would emerge from the white house a much greater man in the eyes of the general public. Thanking you for your time, I am sincerely, John Thuber U" Coates