Letter from Timothy Percy Patterson to President Coolidge

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Description

Election laws and procedures implemented by Southern states often kept black men from voting despite the 14th and 15th Amendments. In 1923, World War I veteran Timothy Percy Patterson wrote to President Calvin Coolidge regarding racial injustice in the United States, stating that he was still fighting for his constitutional rights after returning home from the war.

Transcript

Justice

[upper right corner]
Box 188

Birmingham, Ala.
Oct 16 1923

[stamp]
RESPECTFULLY REFERRED FOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND CONSIDERATION. C.B. SLEUIP Secy. to the President

Hon. Calvin Coolidge
President of U.S.A.
White House,
Washington D.C.

[oval stamp]
THE WHITE HOUSE
Oct 19 1923
RECEIVED

Dear President,

I am a law abiding citizen of the U.S.A.. I served Eighteen months in the World’s War. On the 11th day of Nov. 1918, on the Battle field in France. I held much discussion about we being at peace. I beg to inform that I still have no peace. I am left fighting for Constitutional rights and beg that you assist me in getting them.

I am a Member of the Ex-soldiers Cooperative Association and beg that you give all petitions coming from this said organization every consideration passable.

Yours most Respectfully,

[stamp] OCT 29, 1923

Timothy Percy Patterson
[written in ink] 180337-1-2-2

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file
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Citation

This primary source comes from the General Records of the Department of Justice.

National Archives Identifier: 6207372

Full Citation: Letter from Timothy Percy Patterson to President Calvin Coolidge Regarding Racial Injustice in the United States following World War I; 10/16/1923; 72-1-1; Class 72 (Elections and Political Activity) Litigation Case Files and Enclosures, 1919 – 1980; General Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/document/patterson-coolidge/, December 10, 2025]

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