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Richard Nixon

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:3,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Richard Nixon

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Auction Date:2016 Mar 09 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Remarkable pair of TLSs as president to Vice President Spiro Agnew concerning the end of segregation in schools. The first is one page, 8 x 10.5, White House letterhead, January 26, 1970, in part: “The School System situation in the South as a result of the recent Supreme Court decision on desegregation is causing me great concern. My chief worry is that the quality of education may deteriorate rapidly to the detriment of all concerned. We must act on an urgent basis, and in a collaborative fashion, if extremely dangerous Federal–State confrontations are to be avoided. In this regard, I should appreciate it if you would chair a group whose purpose would be to develop political and programmatic plans to help southern communities maintain a decent system of public education while wrestling with the problem of complying with tough, categorical court orders.” The second is two pages, 8 x 10.5, White House letterhead, March 25, 1970, in part: “I hereby allocate from the appropriation ‘Emergency Fund for the President, 1970,’ To: Cabinet Committee on School Desegregation, Amount: $85,000, for necessary expenses.” Both are initialed by Agnew. In overall fine condition. Accompanied by an unused envelope from Vice President Agnew’s office bearing a pre-printed free frank. Originates from the personal estate of Spiro Agnew.

Despite the historic Brown v. Board of Education ruling of fifteen years earlier, a large percentage of southern school boards had not made progress toward integration by 1969. The Supreme Court’s decision in Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, handed down in October 1969, ordered the immediate desegregation of public schools. Nixon had advocated for more delays and a slow approach to the process, arguing that forced integration was just as wrong as forced segregation; he feared it would rouse violence and vigilantism across the south. To handle the situation, Nixon appointed Agnew and then-Secretary of Labor George P. Shultz to lead a committee to manage the transition; according to Shultz, however, ‘the vice president said he wanted no part’ of it and remained hands-off throughout the process. These letters to his vice president on such an important subject are of the utmost historical interest.