BAREFOOT SANDERS - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 06/06/1972 - HFSID 216003

BAREFOOT SANDERS
As a candidate for the US Senate (1972), he signs a typed letter on campaign stationery.
Typed Letter signed: "Barefoot Sanders", 1 page, 8½x11. Austin, Texas, 1972 June 6. On letterhead of his campaign for US Senate to J. L. Pruett, Clute, Texas. In full: "Thank you very much for your letter of June 2, indicating your work with mental children. My wife, Jan, has worked with volunteer groups and other volunteer organizations that had mental retarded children. I will be more than happy to supply you with autographs. Sincerely? Harold Barefoot Sanders, Jr. (1925-2008) was a Texas state legislator before becoming US Attorney for the Northern District of Texas (1961-1965). On the day of President Kennedy's assassination, Sanders was tasked to find Judge Sarah Hughes, who administered the Presidential Oath to Lyndon Johnson. From 1965 to 1967, Sanders worked at the Department of Justice, rising to Assistant Attorney General and helping to secure Congressional approval of the Voting Rights Act. In 1967 President Johnson made him Legislative Counsel to the President. LBJ nominated Sanders for a federal judgeship, but President Nixon withdrew the nomination. In 1972, Sanders defeated former Senator Ralph Yarborough in the Democratic Primary for US Senate, but lost to John Tower in the general election. Finally attaining a federal judgeship under President Carter in 1979, Sanders sat on that bench until his death, serving as Chief Judge of the Northern District of Texas from 1989 to 1995. Sanders supervised the prolonged desegregation of the Dallas public schools, declaring that goal fully achieved only in 2003. Normal mailing folds. Bottom edge ragged and stained. Ink note (unknown hand) on verso. Lightly creased.