SEPTEMBER 16, 1952 HYDE PARK, Monday—I wonder if my readers have
seen the Carver-Washington commemorative coin. Congress approved
the special minting of these coins and authorized the Birthplace
Memorial Organization to sell them at a premium. The Birthplace
Memorial Organization came into being to buy and preserve the
plantation where Booker T. Washington was born and reared as a
slave. Mr. S.J. Phillips of Alabama, a well-known Negro editor,
undertook the work of this organization because he has always
had such a great admiration for Booker T. Washington. With the
help of white people as well as Negroes, the birthplace was
chartered and the state legislature of Virginia appropriated
$15,000 for the improvement of the farm where Booker T.
Washington was born in 1856. In addition to what he was doing
for the Washington home, in October, 1949, Mr. Phillips was
informed by a member of Congress that the Birthplace of George
Washington Carver at Diamond, Mo. could be taken over by the
National Parks Commission if