The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s

by William I. Hitchcock

Even Ike’s old chum Swede Hazlett stirred the pot of race and sex in a personal letter to the president. Writing in early 1955 about southern reaction to the ruling, he opined that children had no apprehension about integrated schools and would readily adapt to the new landscape. The problem lay with the “racist parents” who had “visions of walking into their parlour some night and finding a black buck courting their own blonde honey-chile. If honey-chile wants a negro date let her have it. But the chances are 1000 to 1 that she won’t—with several centuries of tradition and social usage behind it. When I was a freshman at A[bilene] H[igh] S[chool] Gertie Tyler was a classmate of mine, and a sleek good-looking negress. But I can’t recall ever having even thought of social or any other kind of intercourse with her. Ridiculous!” Hazlett thus captured Ike’s own racial sensibilities in a nutshell.