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{
    "localId": "193950",
    "label": "Letters Between Eleanor Roosevelt and Robert F. Kennedy Parole Case",
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}

{
    "id": "193950",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193950",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Letters Between Eleanor Roosevelt and Robert F. Kennedy Parole Case",
    "description": "Correspondence between Eleanor Roosevelt and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy concerning a case of executive clemency.",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193950",
    "creators": [
        "Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962",
        "Kennedy, Robert F. (Robert Francis), 1925-1968"
    ],
    "collections": [
        "Robert F. Kennedy Papers",
        "Robert F. Kennedy Papers: Attorney General Papers: General Correspondence"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963",
        "Letters (Correspondence)"
    ],
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{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193950",
    "naId": 193950,
    "coverageEndDate": {
        "day": 5,
        "logicalDate": "1961-07-05",
        "month": 7,
        "year": 1961
    },
    "coverageStartDate": {
        "day": 26,
        "logicalDate": "1961-04-26",
        "month": 4,
        "year": 1961
    },
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{
    "seq": 3,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
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    "ocrText": "FROM:\nBronx Committee for the Freedom of Henry Winston\n2731 Barker Avenue\nApril 26, 1961\nBronx 67, N.Y.\nFOR RELEASE ON RECEIPT\nBelow is copy of an Open Letter sent today (WED) to President John F. Kennedy\nby the Bronx Committee for the Freedom of Henry Winston urging executive clemency\nfor Mr. Winston. A similar appeal vas made on January 30, 1961.\nDear Mr. President:\nOnce again we urgently appeal to you for executive clemency for our\nneighbor, blinded Negro Smith Act prisoner Henry Winston, now at Danbury,\nConn. Federal Prison.\nOur last appeal for Henry Winston of some weeks ago brought forth the\nresponse from the Pardon Attorney Mr. Reed Cozart, that President Kennedy\nwill look into this case and let us know of his decision. No such answer\nfrom you, Mr. President, has reached us 80 far.\nMr. Winston is totally, irrevocably blind and totally incapacitated\ndue to the neglect of the prison authorities who for many months paid no\nheed to the danger symptoms of his grave illness - until it was too late\nto save any part of his vision.\nAnd now, as recently as April 11th, he had to be taken from Danbury to\nStaten Island Public Health Hospital for examination by neuro-surgeons his of\nnew symptoms which could be more serious in his condition - pain in\nblinded eyes.\ngovernment Is it not doctors) obvious that for not all prison to see conditions, (and this not is the prison opinion the care, aid of of but the the\nall\nhuman help of family, normal surroundings together with best\nmedical science, given in freedom and in time could still bring some degree\nof relief, some rehabilitation and adjustment to a life of blindness and\nperhaps a ray of light in the life of this kindly - still young man - Henry\nWinston.\nThe Supreme Court ruled in similar Smith Act cases (the California\ncase) that there is no crime in a man's ideas. Why then 18 Mr. Winston,\nafter having completed serving his full Smith Act sentence, now compelled\nto serve the unprecedented three-year sentence for contempt?\nWhy the repeated denial of parole usually accorded other prisoners?\nWhy\nthe denial of medical parole granted other prisoners in cases of\nserious illness?\nMr. Winston, an honored World War II veteran, was ready to give his\nlife for his country in the war against Hitler. Why then 18 he held in\nprison for no act of crime at all? Traitor Axis Sally who called on the\nAmerican Army to lay down its arms and surrender to Hitler is released from\nprison by the Board of Parole. Why?\nDear Mr. President. We feel the time has come for you to intervene in\nthis cruelly unjust case of Mr. Winston and to grant him immediate executive\nclemency.\nPeople of decency and humanity urgently appeal to you to save our\ncountry from the shame of such injustice by returning Mr. Winston to his\nloving wife and his two fine children.\nYour humane action of granting executive clemency to Mr. Winston\nwould inspire greater good will to you, Mr. President, and to our\ncountry among people of good will the world over.\nSincerely yours,\n/signed/ Joseph Pollichetti,\nCheirman."
}