Letter from Morgan W. Strother to George M. Modlin

Letter from Morgan W. Strother to George M. Modlin

This document is a letter from Morgan W. Strother of the W. Fred Richardson Security Storage Corporation to George M. Modlin, the President of the University of Richmond, that was sent on April 21, 1949. Strother wrote that when "we business men" meet, they hear about the importance of voting and "the gravity of the trend toward socialism and the danger of losing our free enterprise system." Elections for the top State officials were approaching and they would "govern our affairs and determine to a great extent the policies under which we must operate our businesses." He emphasized the importance of voting and the danger of a "growing political philosophy" that "carry out their selfish purposes." Strother asked Modlin to draw a red circle around May 7 on his calendar because it is "the deadline for payment of poll taxes in order to vote in the coming elections" and encouraged Modlin to ask his friends and employees to do the same. Poll taxes were a common method to suppress voting rights, particularly of black citizens, across southern states during the era of Jim Crow.

Letter from Morgan W. Strother to George M. Modlin, 21 April 1949, RG 6.2.4 box 7 folder 8, University Archives, Virginia Baptist Historical Society.

1949-04-21

Modlin, George Matthews, 1903-1998

English

UA6.2.4.7.8-19490421.jpg

Richmond (Va.)