Letter from A. Philip Randolph to President Truman
5/29/1952
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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 letter, written by civil rights and labor leader A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, encouraged President Truman to veto the bill.
Randolph wrote that "by basing the quota system on the census of 1920 instead of the 1950 and abolishing the intolerable exclusion of American Negroes from the census for quota determination purposes, [the bill] maintains rank discrimination agains the American Negro population." He also argued that the "McCarran bill, by striking a sinister blow at civil rights and the doctrine of racial democracy and racial equality, thereby constitutes a grave threat to the vitality and strength of our American democratic system..."
Truman did indeed veto this bill, but Congress overrode his veto.
This document was identified by teachers in our Primarily Teaching 2017 Summer Workshop at the Truman Library.This primary source comes from the Collection HST-OFF: Official Files (Truman Administration), 1945 - 1953.
Full Citation: Letter from A. Philip Randolph to President Harry S. Truman; 5/29/1952; Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter Bill), OF 133; Official Files , 1945 - 1953; Collection HST-OFF: Official Files (Truman Administration), 1945 - 1953; Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, MO. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/randolph-truman, April 24, 2024]