History Vault: Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle, NAACP Papers
See related: Immigration skill-intensiveness data, 1966-1967
These materials from the NAACP Papers archive document exchanges between the Cincinnati NAACP and the American Immigration and Citizenship Conference (AICC). The first letter, from the AICC to NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins, thanks him for a donation. The second, from NAACP Assistant Executive Director John A. Morsell to AICC Board member Edward Ennis, responds to Ennis’s criticism of the NAACP’s protest against new immigration laws. Morsell explains the NAACP’s position in support of equal immigration rights for people from the Caribbean. In a third letter, Ennis writes to Wilkins to clarify how the laws affect Caribbean immigrants and disputes the “inadequate information” reported by the New York Times, insisting the laws would not harm African American employment opportunities. Together, the correspondence highlights tensions over the impact of immigration reform. To provide broader context, The New Americans, a report from the National Research Council, examines income and employment trends over three decades following the 1965 Immigration Act.
The New York Times article referenced in the above correspondence is below.
“Rights Unit Assails Eased Immigration”
New York Times, September 18, 1966 issue, p. 56.
