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Letter from William J. Gibbons to President Truman

  • 6/13/1952
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View the full document here: https://docsteach.org/document/william-gibbons-truman/

Description

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, also known as the McCarren-Walter Act, was a controversial law that would revise the national quotas of individuals entering the United States. While it dissolved restricted access to the United States based on race, only a set amount of immigrants from each nation were allowed to enter the country at a time.

This is a letter written by Rev. William J. Gibbons of the Catholic Rural Life Conference expressing his dissent towards the proposed bill. While Truman did indeed veto this bill, his decision was eventually overturned by Congress.

This document was identified by teachers in our Primarily Teaching 2017 Summer Workshop at the Truman Library.

Citation

This primary source comes from the Collection HST-OFF: Official Files (Truman Administration), 1945 - 1953.

National Archives Identifier: 57140214

Full Citation: Letter from William J. Gibbons to President Harry S. Truman; 6/13/1952; Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter Bill), OF 133, 1945 – 1953; Official Files , 1945 – 1953; Collection HST-OFF: Official Files (Truman Administration), 1945 – 1953,; Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, MO. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/document/william-gibbons-truman/, April 8, 2026]

Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.

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The Foundation is the National Archives’ nonprofit partner, supporting programs like DocsTeach to increase awareness of the National Archives and share America’s stories that spark curiosity, inspire discovery, and connect us to one another and our country.

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Except where otherwise noted, DocsTeach is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Primary source documents included on this site generally come from the holdings of the National Archives and are in the public domain, except as noted. Teaching activities on this site have received the CC0 Public Domain Dedication; authors have waived all copyright and related rights to the extent possible under the law. See our legal and privacy page for full terms and conditions.

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