Memorandum, Maxwell Rabb to Sherman Adams Regarding Civil Rights Movement

OF, 142A THE WHITE HOUSE JUN1 0 1957 WASHINGTON CENTHAL FILES April 17, 1957 MEMORANDUM FOR GOVERNOR ADAMS FROM: Max Rabb MMR This is a further report regarding the recent meeting held by key Negro leaders in Washington to plan a march on the Capitol. You will recall that the group of Negro leaders met as scheduled and decided to forego the march on Washington and hold instead a Lincoln memorial service in observance of the anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision of May 17, 1954. The meeting was one that held considerable danger for the Adminis- tration because Martin Luther King and some others had planned to urge the march on Washington as a protest of the failure of the President to speak out, principally in a Southern city on violence in the South. We are getting too firm a hold on the friendship of Negroes to risk the damaging effects of a spectacular effort designed to criticize the President. Fortunately, this did not develop. Congressman Powell, Clarence Mitchell of the NAACP and Reverend Jernigan successfully changed the entire character of this meeting into an occasion where there will be an observance of the anniversary of the school decision through prayer. The President, I am assured, will not be adversely affected. At the present time this matter is well in hand and I will continue to watch it carefully. I do, however, feel that we must keep a constant vigil relative to this matter. There is always the possibility that a prayer pilgrimage cannot be kept under control, and I am in constant communication with the leaders to ensure keeping it in hand.