Letter to President Dwight D. Eisenhower from Charles Alexander Regarding Integration

in 9- 10/5 U. S. NAVAL COMMUNICATION STATION Navy Number 128 (one two eight) Fleet Post Office San Francisco, California 10-30m Attention: OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT Mr. President: My name is Charles Alexander. I am a member of the United States Armed Forces. My race is Negro, and I am eighteen years of age. The purpose of this letter is to find out, first hand, what is being done about the situation now at hand, in the south concerning the intregration problem. This is very important to me because it concerns the welfare of my people, and of the United States. I am but eighteen years of age, and yet I am willing to lay down my life in the defense of a country where my people are not even wanted; I feel very self-conscious about this. Here in the navy, where both white and others are living together, the problem is still the same, with insults comming from right and left. When I came into the navy I was eager to do my best and get ahead. I have lived in California all my life and have never been confronted with anything like this before. It is not because I am a Negro that I feel this way, It is because I have a sense of decency and feel that I should do all that is in my power to correct the awful mistakes so many people are making on both sides. When two people of different races can't live together something has to be done or disaster follows;and I feel that it is reaching the disaster point now. The Declaration Of Independence states that every man has rights, it doesn't include that his skin must be white to receive them.