Executive Order 11111, signed by President John F. Kennedy on June 11, 1963, authorized the Secretary of Defense to use the Armed Forces and the federalized Alabama National Guard to enforce federal court desegregation orders in Alabama.1The American Presidency Project. Executive Order 11111 – Providing Assistance for the Removal of Obstructions of Justice and Suppression of Unlawful Combinations Within the State of Alabama It had nothing to do with silver certificates, the Federal Reserve, or U.S. monetary policy. The order routinely cited in those claims is Executive Order 11110, signed a week earlier on June 4, 1963. The two are constantly swapped online, and the mix-up is the engine behind a lot of bad history.
What Executive Order 11111 Did
The order was a civil rights enforcement action taken during the standoff over the desegregation of the University of Alabama. Earlier the same day, Kennedy issued Proclamation 3542, commanding Governor George Wallace and others to stop obstructing federal court orders.2The American Presidency Project. Proclamation 3542 – Unlawful Obstructions of Justice and Combinations in the State of Alabama When the proclamation went unheeded, Kennedy signed EO 11111, directing the Secretary of Defense “to take all appropriate steps to remove obstructions of justice in the State of Alabama” and authorizing the use of military force and the Alabama National Guard to do it.1The American Presidency Project. Executive Order 11111 – Providing Assistance for the Removal of Obstructions of Justice and Suppression of Unlawful Combinations Within the State of Alabama Currency and banking are nowhere in the text.
The Order People Usually Mean: EO 11110
Executive Order 11110, signed on June 4, 1963, amended Executive Order 10289, a 1951 Truman-era directive that delegated various presidential functions to the Secretary of the Treasury.3The American Presidency Project. Executive Order 11110 – Amendment of Executive Order No. 10289 Kennedy’s amendment added one subparagraph. It gave the Treasury Secretary authority to issue silver certificates against silver bullion or silver dollars held in the Treasury and to set the denominations of those certificates.4National Archives. Executive Order 10289 – Providing for the Performance of Certain Functions of the President by the Secretary of the Treasury
That is the whole substance. The order moved an existing presidential power one step down the organizational chart so the Treasury Secretary could act without a fresh presidential sign-off each time. It did not create a new currency, expand the money supply, or change the Federal Reserve’s role.
The underlying authority was not new either. It came from the Thomas Amendment, attached as Title III to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of May 12, 1933, which gave the President broad discretionary powers over monetary policy during the Depression, including the power to issue silver certificates.5Oklahoma Historical Society. Thomas Amendment EO 11110 cited that statute by name.3The American Presidency Project. Executive Order 11110 – Amendment of Executive Order No. 10289 Silver certificates themselves had been circulating alongside Federal Reserve Notes since the 1870s.
Why EO 11110 Was Not an Attack on the Federal Reserve
The popular version of the story has Kennedy launching a rival “debt-free” currency to bypass the central bank. The record points the opposite direction.
On the same day Kennedy signed EO 11110, Congress enacted Public Law 88-36. That law repealed the Silver Purchase Act of 1934 and related statutes that required the government to buy silver and issue silver certificates, and it authorized the Federal Reserve to issue $1 and $2 notes for the first time, denominations that had been reserved for silver certificates.6Congress.gov. 77 Stat. 54 – Public Law 88-36 Read together, Congress was dismantling the silver certificate regime and letting Federal Reserve Notes take over the small-denomination space. Kennedy’s order handed the Treasury Secretary routine authority over a currency that was being wound down.
The rest of the timeline fits that reading. Redemption of silver certificates for physical silver ended on June 24, 1968; after that, the certificates remained legal tender at face value but were no longer convertible to bullion.7U.S. Mint. Treasury Publishes Procedures for Exchanging Silver Certificates for Silver Bullion In 1987, President Reagan signed Executive Order 12608 as part of a broad cleanup of outdated executive orders, and it removed the silver certificate subparagraph Kennedy had added to EO 10289.8The American Presidency Project. Executive Order 12608 – Elimination of Unnecessary Executive Orders and Technical Amendments The delegation was a dead letter by then.
There is a structural point too. The Federal Reserve System was created by Congress through the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.9Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Federal Reserve Act No executive order can dissolve or supplant it. Only Congress can.
Spotting the Confusion
The number itself is a useful tell. When a source claims that “Executive Order 11111” dealt with silver certificates or the Federal Reserve, it has the wrong order. EO 11111 sent troops to Alabama. EO 11110 delegated silver certificate authority to the Treasury Secretary against a statutory backdrop that Congress was already tearing down. Getting the digit wrong is often a preview of how carefully the rest of the argument has been assembled.