Presidents and Civil liberties from Wilson to obama
This book is a history of the civil liberties records of American presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Barack Obama. It examines the full range of civil liber-ties issues: First Amendment rights of freedom of speech, press, and assem-bly; due process; equal protection, including racial justice, women’s rights, and lesbian and gay rights; privacy rights, including reproductive freedom; and national security issues. The book argues that presidents have not pro-tected or advanced civil liberties, and that several have perpetrated some of the worst violations. Some Democratic presidents (Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt), moreover, have violated civil liberties as badly as some Republican presidents (Richard Nixon and George W. Bush). This is the first book to examine the full civil liberties record of each president, allowing us to place a president’s record on civil rights, for example, in the context of his record on national security issues and to compare the performance of all the presidents covered on particular issues.
Samuel Walker is Professor Emeritus of Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is author of thirteen books on civil liberties, criminal justice, and policing. They include In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU (1990), Hate Speech (1994), and Sense and Nonsense about Crime (7th ed., 2012). He is a frequent commentator on criminal justice and police issues in the national news media and has appeared on CNN, NBC, NPR, PBS Frontline, and the History Channel. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Justice Department and local community groups on police problems.
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Presidents and Civil liberties from Wilson to obama
A Story of Poor CuStodiAnS
Samuel WalkerUniversity of nebraska at omaha
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© Samuel Walker 2012
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First published 2012
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication dataWalker, Samuel, 1942–
Presidents and civil liberties from Wilson to Obama : a story of poor custodians / Samuel Walker. p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-107-01660-6 (hardback)1. Presidents – United States. 2. Civil rights – United States. 3. Executive power – United States. I. Title.KF5053.W35 2012342.7308′5–dc23 2011048914
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To
Elizabeth Emlen Walker
January 13, 1913–June 15, 2011
My mother was born two months before the events in this book begin, and she died almost exactly a year before it was published. She had a long and happy life, never complaining, even though at times we certainly gave her plenty of reason to do so. The summer before her death, at age ninety-seven, she was working in the garden at the assisted living center. She worked in a garden almost every day of her adult life. Everyone should tend his or her own chosen garden with the same determination and contentment.
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vii
Preface page xiii
Acknowledgments xv
List of Abbreviations xix
1. Introduction: Presidents and Civil Liberties 1Scenes from the White House 1Poor Custodians of American Liberties 2Presidents and America’s Core Values 2
PART I. The eARly yeARS
2. Woodrow Wilson and the Suppression of Civil Liberties in World War I 9
“Such Creatures . . . Must Be Crushed Out” 9Wilson, Progressivism, and Civil Liberties 9War and Repression Begin, 1917 10Wilson’s Role in the Repression 17The Mind of the Progressive Reformer 20The Final Orgy: The Red Scare, 1919–1920 30An Ominous Legacy: Origins of the National Security State 32Moving Backward on Race 34A Reluctant Path to Women’s Suffrage 39Brandeis to the Supreme Court 42End of a Presidency – Dawn of the Civil Liberties Era 43
3. Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover: Civil Liberties in the Wilderness 47
Civil Liberties in a Changing America 47The Red Scare “Hangover” 49Amnesty for the Victims of Wartime Prosecutions 51Political Spying Continues 52Keeping Dangerous Ideas out of the United States 55A National Campaign for Racial Justice 57Alice Paul, the ERA, and a New Direction for Women’s Rights 63Sex and Censorship: The Post Office and the Customs Bureau 65Attacking the First Amendment Rights of Organized Labor 67Lawless Policing: Prohibition Enforcement 70
Contents
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Freedom to Teach: The Scopes Case 73Straws in the Wind: The Supreme Court Shifts 75End of the Republican Era 76
4. Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Mixed Legacy of a Strong President 79“The Greatest Violation of Civil Liberties in American History” 79The Japanese-American Tragedy: FDR Decides 80FDR, the Constitution, and Presidential Power 85The Tragedy Unfolds 87The Rights of Working People: A Casual Indifference 90Federal Protection for Civil Rights: Origins of the Civil
Rights Division 93Unleashing FBI Spying: The Permanent National Security State 95Troubling Claims of Presidential Power 101A March on Washington? FDR Confronts the Civil Rights
Movement 104Freedom of Speech in Peace and War 112Creating the Roosevelt Court 117President Roosevelt versus the Roosevelt Years 123
PART II. CIvIl lIbeRTIeS In The Cold WAR And CIvIl RIghTS eRAS
5. Harry Truman: Courage and Contradictions 127Cold War Contradictions 127Truman and Civil Liberties 127Anti-communism at Home and Abroad 128The Loyalty Program in Operation 131Attacking the Communist Party and “Dangerous” Ideas 133Truman, J. Edgar Hoover, and the FBI 135The Rise of Government Secrecy – and Challenges 137McCarthyism Arrives 138Unmatched Political Courage: Truman and Civil Rights 141Korea: Three Crucial Decisions on Presidential Power 148A Divisive Church-State Controversy 155Last Gasp (for a While) for the ERA 157Mediocrity on the Supreme Court 159The Ambiguity of Strong Presidential Leadership 160
6. Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Failure of Presidential Leadership 163“My Biggest Mistake” 163Silence on Joe McCarthy 163Civil Rights: A Leadership Failure 167Ike, Communism, and Domestic Security 183Secrecy, Executive Privilege, and the CIA 187A Weak Record on Women’s Issues 193Creating the Warren Court 193The End of the Fifties 199
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7. John F. Kennedy: The Failed Promise of the New Frontier 203A Walk in the Rose Garden 203A Voice for Religious Tolerance 204“Bystander”: Kennedy’s Failure on Civil Rights 206JFK’s Historic Speech and a Civil Rights Bill 214Robert Kennedy’s Justice Department 219The Press, Secrecy, and the CIA 226Standing Firm on Church and State: The School
Prayer Decision 231A Forgotten Initiative on Women’s Rights 233Initiating Immigration Reform 235A Mixed Record on Judicial Appointments 236A Presidency Cut Short 236
8. The Glory and the Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson 239“We … Shall … Overcome” 239Presidential Leadership: The 1964 Civil Rights Act 241Selma and the Voting Rights Act: LBJ Seizes the Moment 244LBJ’s Vision of a Truly Egalitarian Society 252Blind Spot: LBJ and Women’s Rights 255Finessing the Wall of Separation 259Wiretapping, the FBI, and Crime 260LBJ’s Dark Side: Abuse of the FBI and the CIA 263The End of the Liberal Moment: Riots and the War on Crime 269Civil Libertarians to the Supreme Court 272The Tragedy of Vietnam 274A Presidency Ruined, Dreams Destroyed 277
9. Richard Nixon: A Singular Abuse of Presidential Power 281“I Am Not a Crook” 281The Conservative Reaction, 1968 282Nixon Takes Office; the Abuses Begin 284“Law and Order” Politics 289A Different Vision of Progress on Race 292Nixon Confronts the Sexual Revolution 298Parochaid: Attacking the Wall of Separation 299A Surprising Stand on Women’s Rights 300The Nixon Court: The Conservative Revolution Delayed 302The Road to Watergate 305The Watergate Break-in and the End of a Presidency 309An Abuse of Presidential Power Unlike Any Other 316
PART III. The PoST-WATeRgATe eRA
10. Gerald Ford: A Minor President in Very Interesting Times 321The Nixon Pardon 321Between Watergate and Neoconservatism 322Edward H. Levi: Integrity in the Attorney General’s Office 324
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The Watergate Hangover 327Reform: Curbing Abuses of Power 337Confusion on Civil Rights 341In the Crossfire on Women’s Rights and Abortion Rights 344Stepping Up the War on Crime 347Stevens to the Supreme Court 348A Minor President in Very Interesting Times 349
11. Jimmy Carter: Good Civil Libertarian, Failed President 350A Blurred Vision for America 350An Independent Attorney General 352Faith and Politics: A Tiger by the Tail 353The Lonely Middle of the Road on Abortion 354Dilemmas on Civil Rights 356Forward and Backward on Women and Family Issues 361Opening the White House Door to Lesbian and Gay Rights 366The New World of National Security Politics 368The Hostage Crisis: Backtracking on National Security 373An Unhappy End 374A Failed President, with a Decent Record 376
12. Ronald Reagan – and George H. W. Bush: The Neoconservative Assault on Civil Liberties 379
“I Wear Their Indictment Like a Badge of Honor” 379The Advent of Reagan and the New Right 379The Powerful New Religious Right 381Understanding Reagan and Reaganism 382A Woman on the Supreme Court: Sandra Day O’Connor 385The Politics of Abortion 386A Deadly Silence on AIDS 390Attorney General Meese’s Right-Wing Agenda 392Storming the Wall of Separation 397War on Crime – and on Civil Liberties 399Rolling Back Civil Rights Enforcement 400Iran-Contra: The Issue of Presidential Power Returns 404Transforming the Supreme Court 413The First George Bush 415Twelve Years of Neoconservatism 419
13. Bill Clinton: The Divided Soul of a “New Democrat” 420A “New Democrat” in the White House 420Taking Office: Initiatives and Crises 422A Special Rapport: Bill Clinton and African Americans 425Fighting Crime, Eroding Civil Liberties 430Standing Firm on Abortion Rights and Women’s Rights 435Preserving the Wall of Separation in Public Schools 436Clinton and the First Amendment 437Troubling Assertions of Presidential Power 439
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Confronting International Terrorism 445Moderate Libertarians to the Supreme Court 450A Contradictory President 452
PART Iv. CIvIl lIbeRTIeS In The Age of TeRRoRISm
14. George W. Bush: A Systematic Assault on the Constitution 457Over to “The Dark Side” 4579/11: The World of Civil Liberties Changes 460Secret – and Not Secret – Abuses of Presidential Power 465The World, America, and Vice President Cheney 470Asserting Presidential Power: Three Avenues 471The Dark Side: Rendition, Detention, and Torture 474An International Disgrace: Torture 475The Supreme Court Confronts Presidential Power 481Authorization to Go to War 483A Religious Crusade at Home 484An Antihomosexual Agenda – with Some Odd Compromises 485“Bush League Science”: The War on Science 486Politicizing the Justice Department 487The Supreme Court: The Conservative Revolution
Finally Arrives 490The Most Sweeping Assault on the Constitution 492
15. Conclusion: Reflections on Presidents, Civil Liberties, and Democracy – with Observations on Barack Obama 495
America Transformed: The Rights Revolution 495Presidents and the Rights Revolution 495Presidents and Civil Liberties 497Civil Liberties and Democracy 501An Alternative Interpretation of Democracy and Rights 506Final Thoughts: A Conversation about America 508
Sources 511
Index 521
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This book was initially conceived in 2005 in response to the presidency of George W. Bush. Many people at that time were calling Bush the worst president ever on civil liberties, if not on all issues, because of the Iraq War, the human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib, the secrecy, the lying, and many other assaults on established rights. While I joined in that judgment, it soon occurred to me that you cannot legitimately call anything the “worst” unless you have studied others in the same category. I then realized that no historian had ever undertaken a systematic study of modern presidents and civil liberties. Thus was born this book.
This book examines the civil liberties records of all the presidents beginning with Woodrow Wilson and covers the full range of civil liberties issues: freedom of speech and press, religious liberty, due process of law, equal protection of the law, privacy, and all of the civil liberties issues raised by national security considerations. From the outset, I determined to be rigorously even-handed and to examine Democratic presidents as critically as their Republican counterparts. In my personal life I am a liberal Democrat (although most often a very disappointed one). I began well aware that Democratic presi-dents were responsible for some of the worst violations of civil liberties in American his-tory: Woodrow Wilson’s suppression of dissent in World War I and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s evacuation and internment of Japanese Americans in World War II. So I was prepared to be critical of famous liberal Democrats. I believe that readers will find that I have held to my original commitment, including reaching favorable judgments about Republican presidents where the evidence warrants them.
Readers have a right to know that parts of my personal history inevitably shape my perspective on particular episodes in this book. In summer 1964, I was a volunteer in the Mississippi Summer Project, a historic effort to register African American voters in that state, and I eventually spent most of the next two years in Mississippi. This was a transfor-mative experience, which has shaped my life and scholarly work ever since. Inevitably, that experience gives this book a special focus on how presidents have dealt with racial justice. Given the salience of race in American history, it is an appropriate focus. I am also a member of the Vietnam War–era generation and was active in the antiwar movement. Lyndon Johnson was the first president I ever voted for, and I did so in 1964 because we believed he was not going to do something reckless like get the United States involved in a war, particularly in Asia. The escalation of the Vietnam War in early 1965 generated a strong sense of betrayal and anger at Johnson. The tragedy of the war overshadowed for me, as I believe it continues to do for many Americans, his great accomplishments on civil rights and civil liberties. In researching and writing this book it took a while to get past the legacy of that anger and appreciate the great things he did accomplish, but
Preface
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without forgetting or excusing his responsibility for the tragedy of the Vietnam War. I was also a strong critic of President George W. Bush, for his two wars, the way he prosecuted the war on terrorism, and the assaults on civil liberties at home. Thus, presidential deci-sions to involve this country in wars are another special focus of this book. Again, the subject warrants this attention, and readers will find that I am sharply critical of presi-dents of both parties.
Readers should also know that my commitment to civil liberties includes a long involvement with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). I served for about a decade on the ACLU Board of Directors and for about as many years on the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Nebraska, and was President of that board in 1981 and 1982. I then wrote a history of the ACLU: In Defense of American Liberties (Oxford University Press, 1990; second edition, Southern Illinois University Press, 1999). Inevitably, some skeptics will question my capacity to be objective about the ACLU as it appears in this book. They should take a look at my book on the ACLU, and in particular the chapters on the cold war, and then make their judgments about my capacity for objectivity.
With respect to the research that went into this book, I would like to point out that I conducted no original interviews. This reflected a choice about the kind of book I wanted to write. The written record available for this book is enormous, including the material in twelve presidential libraries, the archives of many other individuals and organizations, innumerable memoirs of and biographies of key figures; the relevant scholarly articles by historians, political scientists, legal scholars, and others; news media accounts, including notably the entire record of the New York Times, which is conveniently available online. I realized that if I began conducting interviews, the only responsible approach was to be systematic and to interview nearly everyone of importance who is alive and willing. That would be an enormous undertaking, given the fact that there are people still alive who are knowledgeable about Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Such an under-taking by itself would be virtually impossible to complete within my lifetime. Selective interviewing would open the door to potentially impermissible bias, or at least the per-ception of bias. And so I made a difficult, but I feel necessary, decision to rely entirely on the available written record.
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No one writes a book of this size and scope without a lot of help from many people. Some of that help is practical, and some of it is encouragement and moral support during dif-ficult times.
I would particularly like to thank Emily Whitfield, who has functioned as both a good friend and my agent. She helped shaped my prospectus, which involved thinking about how the book would be presented to its audiences, and she made the initial contact with Cambridge University Press. At Cambridge, my editor, John Berger, was immediately enthusiastic about the book and has been completely supportive, including through some difficult moments. His assistant, David Jou, also provided practical assistance on some important points in the production process.
At the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), Jim Shaw, Government Documents Librarian, was extraordinarily helpful in tracking down documents that I could not locate. On several occasions I would call him about, for example, a set of congressional hearings, and fifteen minutes later a PDF copy would appear in my e-mail in-box. Jim also arranged an early opportunity for me to present on the subject of this book at the UNO Library and was also the first to arrange a presentation after the book is published.
The History News Network published a short piece online early in my research when I had an opportunity to develop my thoughts on the issue of ranking presidents. Through the courtesy of Professor Jack Call, I had the privilege of being the Centennial Speaker at Radford University in Virginia in 2010. Two of the three presentations I gave were based on material from this book. The UNO History Department invited me to be its Centennial Speaker in the fall of 2009, and it afforded me an opportunity to give a presentation on the speeches presi-dents did not give, which proved to be an interesting way to approach failures in presidential leadership. The ACLU of Nebraska invited me to speak on Obama and civil liberties in the fall of 2010, and that gave me an opportunity to refine my position on that issue. Martha P. Noonan, organizer of a conference on the fiftieth anniversary of the Freedom Rides in Chicago in 2011, invited me to give a paper on President Kennedy’s response to the Rides.
The staffs at all of the Presidential Libraries where I conducted the most important research were always extremely helpful. Several gave me very valuable tips on par-ticular sets of files that I should examine. Some were more than happy to track down later information or documents that I discovered I had missed during my visit. In chro-nological order of the presidents, I would like to thank the staff at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, the Harry Truman Presidential Library, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, the Gerald Ford Presidential Library, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, the Ronald Reagan
Acknowledgments
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Presidential Library, and the George H. W. Bush Library. At the time of my research, the Richard Nixon Papers were still housed at the National Archives, in College Park, Maryland, and I would like to thank the staff there for their assistance with that collec-tion and several others. As with previous books, I found the Library of Congress to be a wonderful place to conduct research, and I would like to thank the staff there for their help during repeated visits. For my trip to the Kennedy Library I would like to thank Ruth Purtillo and Vard Johnson for graciously hosting me in Boston. And in Albany, New York, Julie Horney hosted me while I was working in the Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park.
I would like to express special appreciation for the directors of the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Its online archive has nearly 100,000 documents related to the presidency, including speeches, press confer-ences, executive orders, political party platforms, and many other relevant documents. It is a truly magnificent resource that saved me far more hours than I could possibly esti-mate. Congratulations and thanks to everyone involved with the project. I would also like to thank the directors of the National Security Archive at George Washington University. The online archive contains an estimated 500,000 pages of previously classified docu-ments, usually with explanatory introductions. The archive made an enormous contribu-tion to the research for this book.
Several people read various chapters of the manuscript. In particular, I would like to thank Leigh Ann Wheeler of Binghamton University. She took time out from her impor-tant forthcoming book on civil liberties to offer helpful comments. It has also been a great pleasure to be able to share the travails of completing a book with someone in the midst of the same experience.
I owe a special debt to Greg Robinson, of the Universite du Quebec a Montreal, who carefully read the chapter on Franklin D. Roosevelt and caught some errors of fact and interpretation that I had allowed to slip into the manuscript. Louis Fisher, now retired from the Library of Congress, meanwhile, read the chapters on Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and also caught some points that needed clarification and had other very help-ful comments regarding national security issues. Phillipa Strum, then at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a longtime colleague on the ACLU National Board of Directors and the author of books on Louis Brandeis, read the chapter on Wilson and offered some valu-able suggestions. Athan Theoharis, now retired from Marquette University and the lead-ing expert on the FBI and the cold war, read the Truman and Eisenhower chapters and provided some important critical comments. Kathyrn Olmsted, University of California at Davis, provided valuable comments on the Gerald Ford chapter, with some good sug-gestions on the complex topic of the post-Watergate investigations of the intelligence agencies. Christopher Smith of Michigan State University read several chapters and had some helpful comments on the role of the Supreme Court. David Harris of the University of Pittsburgh Law School, who has been a longtime close colleague on issues of police accountability, my primary area of activity when I am not doing history, read the first chapter I wrote and made some encouraging comments. Roger Goldman of St. Louis University Law School, another friend and colleague on police accountability issues, also made some helpful comments on several chapters.
In Omaha, the UNO History Professor Bill Pratt, a colleague and friend for more than forty years, read the chapter on Harry Truman and forced me to rethink what had been my initial treatment of his presidency. Some friends who are not historians also read the
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manuscript, as I was interested in whether it was written in a style that would appeal to the nonhistorian. Nora Bacon, Professor of English at UNO, gave me a very helpful read-ing. She is the author of The Well-Crafted Sentence, and her book helped me avoid a num-ber of common lapses in writing. Any poorly crafted sentences that remain are my own responsibility. John Else, my longest-standing friend, also read two chapters and offered helpful comments.
Carol Grant Gould obtained the photographs for the book in an extremely efficient manner, saving me much time and enormous headaches. Working with her was a real pleasure.
I have had a long involvement of more than thirty years with the ACLU at both the state and national levels. Over those years I have had many discussions with many leaders and members of the organization on issues covered in this book: presidential power, First and Fourth Amendment questions, church and state, and so on. This has been a major part of my continuing education, and it has directly informed this book. I would particularly like to express my appreciation to Norman Dorsen, former President of the ACLU, who has been enormously supportive of this and other books. In addition to his vast knowledge of civil liberties issues, he has always been a wise counsel. Nadine Strossen, Norman’s successor as President of the ACLU, has been a great friend and colleague, and provided special support for this book. I first met Emily Whitfield, whom I have already mentioned as my agent for this book, when she was the news media person in the ACLU national office. In 2010 I worked with Mia Nitchun on the materials for the ACLU’s ninetieth anni-versary. Her probing questions helped to clarify fine points about exactly who did what in particular major cases.
At the office, our computer specialist, Angela Patton, has always been there to solve my computer problems quickly and with a smile. I cannot thank her enough for explain-ing to me the mysteries of the “On” button, which seems to solve about half of all com-puter problems. Holi Samieva, a graduate student and now UNO staff member from Uzbekistan, edited the footnotes and made many important corrections in the citations.
Finally, I would like to thank my companion, Mary Ann Lamanna. In late September of 2011 we spent a week in Paris to celebrate thirty years together. It was a wonderful week. So were the thirty years. She works tirelessly on her own books but always knows there is time for a movie.
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AARC Assassination Archive Research Center
AAUM American Union against Militarism
ACLU American Civil Liberties Union
ACLUP American Civil Liberties Union Papers, Mudd Library, Princeton
University
ACLUPME ACLU Papers, Microfilm edition
ACW Ann C. Whitman, Secretary to President Dwight D. Eisenhower
APP American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa
Barbara
APRP A. Philip Randolph Papers, Library of Congress
BOI Bureau of Investigation. Predecessor of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CLB Civil Liberties Bureau
COHC Columbia University Oral History Collection, Columbia
University
CORE Congress of Racial Equality
CSI Center for the Study of Intelligence
DDE Dwight D. Eisenhower
DDEPL Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kansas
DOJ Department of Justice
DPC Domestic Policy Council
EHLP Edward H. Levi Papers, University of Chicago
ER Eleanor Roosevelt
EROHP Eleanor Roosevelt Oral History Project, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library
ERP Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential
Library
FAOH Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Library of Congress
FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation
FBIERR Federal Bureau of Investigation Electronic Reading Room
FDR Franklin D. Roosevelt
FDRPL Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York
FFPLOC Felix Frankfurter Papers, Library of Congress
FOR Fellowship of Reconciliation
Abbreviations
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Abbreviationsxx
FPBP Francis P. Biddle Papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential
Library
FPBP-GU Francis P. Biddle Papers, Georgetown University
GFPL Gerald Ford Presidential Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan
GHWBPL George H. W. Bush Presidential Library, College
Station, Texas
GID General Intelligence Division, Bureau of Investigation
GUL Georgetown University Library, Washington, D.C.
HHPL Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, West Branch, Iowa
HST Harry S. Truman
HSTPL Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, Independence,
Missouri
HU Human Rights (category within White House Central Files
[WHCF])
JCPL Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, Georgia
JFKPL John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston, Massachusetts
JL Judicial Legal (category within White House Central Files
[WHCF])
LBJ Lyndon B. Johnson
LBJPL Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, Texas
LOC Library of Congress
MCPA Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia
NA National Archives
NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
NAACPP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Papers, Library of Congress. Also, Microfilm edition
NCLB National Civil Liberties Bureau
NSA National Security Agency
NSArch National Security Archive, George Washington University
NSC National Security Council
NWPP National Woman’s Party Papers, Library of Congress
NYT The New York Times
OH Oral History
OHAS Oral History of the American South, University of North Carolina
Library
OPL Office of Public Liaison
PWW Papers of Woodrow Wilson
RFK Robert F. Kennedy
RMNP Richard M. Nixon Papers, National Archives (The Nixon Papers
have since been moved to the Richard M. Nixon Presidential
Library, Yorba Linda, California.)
ROHO Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of
California
RRRPL Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California
SCLC Southern Christian Leadership Council
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Abbreviations xxi
SNCC Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee
SWPC Swarthmore Peace Collection, Swarthmore College
UC University of Chicago
WHCF White House Central Files
WJCPL William J. Clinton Presidential Library, Little Rock, Arkansas
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