Summaries of Letters to President Eisenhower Concerning the Murder of Emmett Till (1955)

Date: September 6, 1955

Created By: Sherman Adams

Original or Replica: Original

Era: The Presidency, Civil Rights

Collection: Eisenhower Presidential Library

Citations: DDE’s Records as President, Alphabetical File, Box 3113, Emmett Till; NAID #12197846

This document contains White House summaries of eight letters sent to President Dwight D. Eisenhower requesting assistance from the federal government on a variety of issues. Prepared by Sherman Adams, the President’s Assistant and later White House Chief of Staff, the summaries were intended to brief the President on significant correspondence received by the White House.

The first and last letter summaries concern the murder of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African American whose killing in Money, Mississippi, became a catalyst for the modern Civil Rights Movement. The first summarizes a letter from William Henry Huff, Chairman of the Legal Redress Committee of the Chicago Branch of the NAACP, urging federal action in response to Till’s murder. The final summary describes a letter from John T. Bernard of the Civil Rights Congress of Illinois, who argued that the federal government had a responsibility to investigate the case and called for the resignation of Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr., criticizing what he viewed as the federal government’s inadequate response.