Baltimore City Community College

The Route 40 Incidents

Background

The Route 40 incidents are about the discrimination experienced in the State of Maryland by African diplomats in 1961. A series of incidents were reported to the State Department Office of the Chief of Protocol by the ambassadors of Niger, Cameroun, Chad, Sierre Leone and Mali. The documents reproduced here include the public and private responses of President John F. Kennedy, members of his administration, and the Governors of the states of Maryland and Arkansas, to redress the injury. The documents in this file are from a curriculum project completed in the summer of 1977 at the John F. Kennedy Library.

Incidents

1. On June 14, the Ambassador of Niger was refused service in a bar near Aberdeen, Maryland.
2. On June 21, the Ambassador of Cameroun reported that his chauffer had been ejected from a restaurant, and that a month earlier the Ambassador himself had been refused service in a restaurant in Maryland.
3. On June 26, the Ambassador of Chad, enroute to present his credentials to the White House, was refused service in a restaurant in Maryland.
4. Earlier in April, there was the Fitzjohn Incident .

Presidential Adivisor Offers Options

• Memorandum from Ted Reardon to the President, April 10, 1961

Two State Governors Respond

• Letter from Orval E. Faubus, Governor of Arkansas, April 25, 1961.
• Letter from J. Millard Tawes, Governor of Maryland, July 11, 1961.

The Presidential Query

• Memorandum from President Kennedy to Angier Biddle Duke, November 1, 1961.
• Harris Wofford an Oral History Interview excerpt .

Response to the Presidential Query

• Memorandum For the President from Frederick G. Dutton, November 3, 1961.
• Memorandum from Pedro A. Sanjuan to the Chief of Protocol, November 9, 1961.

Related Links

• Coffee mugs
• Guide to the Collections John F. Kennedy Library
• Superhighway Citations How to document Internet sources
• Route40 sources
• Photo trip through Mali
• Sierre Leone Page
• The United States State Department Home Page

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© 1977 Joan A. Andersen, John F. Kennedy Library Workshop on Curriculum Development.
Off-Campus Internet Associates
Comments to Joan A. Andersen: joanaa@umd5.umd.edu
Content copyright © 1996 Joan A. Andersen;
Revised: 28 December 1998
URL: http://www.erols.com/bcccsbs/route40.htm