Letter from John Beaulieu to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Braille
10/1956
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In 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower was running for re-election. In 13-year-old John Beaulieu’s sixth grade government class project, students presented mock stump speeches and voted. John offered President Eisenhower the following campaign stump speech: "Vote for me. I will help you out. I will lower the prices and also your tax bill. I also will help the negroes, so that they may go to school."
John’s mock Eisenhower stump speech was a hit with the class, and his teacher suggested he share his speech with the President. John wrote this careful letter in Braille, and his teacher wrote out the words over the Braille. A few weeks later, John received a response from the President himself.
Beaulieu was writing from Perkins School For The Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, the oldest school for the blind in the world. To write this letter, he used a stylus to push raised letters into heavy paper that was clamped into a hinged slate. The dotted border marks the frame on the slate that held the paper in place.
This letter uses the term "negroes" to refer to Black people, which was commonly accepted in that era, but is outdated and inappropriate today.
John’s mock Eisenhower stump speech was a hit with the class, and his teacher suggested he share his speech with the President. John wrote this careful letter in Braille, and his teacher wrote out the words over the Braille. A few weeks later, John received a response from the President himself.
Beaulieu was writing from Perkins School For The Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, the oldest school for the blind in the world. To write this letter, he used a stylus to push raised letters into heavy paper that was clamped into a hinged slate. The dotted border marks the frame on the slate that held the paper in place.
This letter uses the term "negroes" to refer to Black people, which was commonly accepted in that era, but is outdated and inappropriate today.
This primary source comes from the Collection DDE-WHCF: White House Central Files (Eisenhower Administration).
National Archives Identifier: 594353
Full Citation: Letter from John Beaulieu to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Braille; 10/1956; PPF 28-B Letters to Children - Heart Interest B (3); President's Personal Files, 1953 - 1961; Collection DDE-WHCF: White House Central Files (Eisenhower Administration); Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, KS. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/beaulieu-eisenhower-braille, October 13, 2024]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.