Letter to Senator Robert F. Kennedy

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405 Nuber Avenue Mount Vernon, N.Y. 10553 June 1, 1967 The Honorable Robert. F. Kennedy New York State Senator Main Post Office Building New York, New York My dear Senator Kenney: Perhaps you can lend my family and me some rather desperately needed help, in a situation briefly described as follows. From February through April 1966, because of the insistent pleas of Mount Vernon civil rights leaders, I campaigned for a seat on the local board of education. The only Negro in the five-man race for two seats, I came in a close third, pursuing a platform that strongly endorsed integrated schools and more unified political action on the part of Negroes. After the campaign, disturbing events began to happen, and they are still happen- ing. My telephone has definitely been tapped, and my house has evidently been "bugged." Local Italian service firms have indirectly refused to do any work on my residence. A few unregistered students have shown up in my classes at The City College and tried to insinuate leading questions into discussions. A man came to my house several times in my absence, posing as a painter from Pilgrim Aluminum Applicators Corporation, 1103 E. Gun Hill Road in the Bronx, using the name "Mr. Dudley" (which he or someone else wrote on the enclosed duplicated card--I have the original--which he gave to my wife). Tele- vision broadcasts and newspaper items this year have revealed this man to be Reverend Henry Dudley Ricker of the White Rock Baptist Church in Harlem. While at my house he used devious means in attempts to secure various information from my wife. Most insidious of all, there is strong evidence that my wife, a student at Columbia University School of General Studies, has been harassed inside and outside of the class- rooms. There is the abominable possibility that her Spanish Conversation F1222y class this spring, taught by a Mrs. Marquez, was attended wholly or predominantly by "ringers" who as a group brought intense pressure to bear upon my wife by constant insinuations interspersed into the Spanish conversation, using phrases and data that would be known only by a person who had searched our house or listened to our family conversation. The ostensible students were Hilda Hoffman, supposed wife of a Rabbi Hoffman of Columbia University; Richard Clark, about 50; Robert Jones, who used the name Young later in the semester, about 40; Mr. Ennis, about 20; Miss Marks, about 22; Mrs. Meta or Mejhta, about 30. My wife's only other questionable classmate was a Mrs. Betty Malone or Mellon, about 45, in her Spanish F1202y class, taught by Anton Meir. Columbia University stu- dents involved have often found ways to suggest that this entire episode was initiated by James S. Young, an Assistant Professor in Government now on leave at Brookings Insti- tute, and said to be a CIA agent. I sometimes receive opened mail, and some letters that I send are opened before they reach their destinations. Some of our friends have asked odd questions on the phone-- all forming a pattern hard to ignore. I am also concerned about my thirteen-year-old son, who is subtly involved at times through telephone calls to him. You can understand the enormity of these events in my life, which has been devoted to the study of litera- ture, unmarked by involvements generally construed with even mild disfavor. I must find out what kind of investigation has been aimed at my family and me. Would you be kind enough to talk with my wife and me? Though channels of communication with me have been watched, as indicated, I feel that I can leave it to your experience to devise an effec- tive manner of getting in touch with me. I look forward to that event. Sincerely yours, James A. Emanuel Asst. Professor Encl: "Dudley's" card

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Typed letter to Senator Robert F. Kennedy from James Emanuel, dated June 1, 1967. Emanuel requests help from Kennedy due to the instability and danger of racial tension.

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  • type
    Image
  • created on
  • file format
    jpg
  • file size
    12 MB
  • container title
    James A. Emanuel Papers
  • creator
    James A. Emanuel
  • issue
    Box 11 Folder 3, Election campaign for seat on Board of Education, Mt. Vernon, N.Y., 1967
  • rights
    James A. Emanuel Estate
  • rights holder
    James A. Emanuel Estate
  • version
    1-Jun-67