Telegram from Roy Wilkins, Executive Director of the NAACP to President Kennedy
September 28, 1962
  1. Roy Wilkins asks rhetorically whether "Mississippi Bourbonism" will "prevail over the rulings of the United States courts." "Bourbonism" as defined by Webster's New World Dictionary (1984), means "advocacy or support of conservative government, like that of the Bourbons [in Europe]; extreme political and social action." Do you think this term applied to Mississippi in the Fall of 1962?
  2. What action does Mr. Wilkins urge President Kennedy to be prepared to take?