TLS as president signed “D. E.,” one page, 6.75 x 8.75, White House letterhead, September 30, 1957. Letter to Senator Francis Case of South Dakota. In full: “I deeply appreciate your telegram expressing approval of my remarks to the Nation on the Little Rock situation. Not in our time, insofar as I can prevent it, will there be any failure by the Executive to support those institutions of government on which our personal freedom depends. I regard it as tragic that, through failing to respect the proper orders of the Federal Court, a small group of agitators and extremists besmirched all Little Rock and Arkansas. I believe that the great majority of Arkansas citizens are a law-abiding and as fine as any other Americans any place; but, unfortunately, a handful of irresponsible citizens have managed to defame the image of America before all the world.” Significant brushing to ink in the signature, otherwise fine condition.
This letter dates to the month of the crisis surrounding the Little Rock Nine, in which Governor Faubus of Arkansas prevented a group of nine African-American students from entering the segregated Little Rock Central High School. The governor went so far as to call in the Arkansas National Guard to form a blockade. President Eisenhower was forced to dispatch the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, where their presence quelled the unrest; the troops remained there to protect the students for the remainder of the school year. A supremely desirable presidential letter about a critical early moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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