President Kennedy and Civil Rights
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 30-05-17 10:24
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- President Kennedy (1961-63) and African Americans
- Speeches
- During his election campaign said he was 'sympathetic' to civil rights
- Phoned Coretta King when MLK (husband) gaoled (imprisoned) during 1960 sit-in protests
- Appointments
- Kennedy put pressure on his administration to employ more black Americans
- e.g. he was shocked to discover only 48 AAs were employed among 13,649 FBI employees
- Appointed 40 black people to top posts
- Appointed 5 black federal judges (including Thurgood Marshall)
- Bobby Kennedy appointed Attorney General who brought 57 suits against illegal violations of black voting rights (compared to 6 under Eisenhower)
- Hastened desegregation in schools in New Orleans, Atlanta and Memphis
- Kennedy put pressure on his administration to employ more black Americans
- Presidential actions
- Used federal pressure to get Washington Redskins (last baseball team not to employ black players) to sign up 3 black team members
- Bobby Kennedy asked National Guard and state troops to intervene to protect Freedom Riders
- Bobby Kennedy sent 500 marshals to help James Meredith enrol at Uni of Mississippi (first black American to do so)
- Meredith enrolled and other black students followed
- Following clashes JFK sent US Army regulars to reinforce marshals for Meredith
- Alabama last state where universities de-segregated
- Kennedy used federal troops and law enforcers
- Created Committee on Equal Opportunity (CEEO) designed to ensure equal employment opportunities for federal employees
- Presidential actions
- Often symbolic and lacking in real action
- e.g. famous phrase he would eliminate social deprivation in housing with the stroke of a pen and when that didn't happen campaigners sent pens to the Whitehouse to remind him
- Kennedy opposed President Eisenhower's 1957 Civil Rights Act on political grounds (Eisenhower was Republican and Kennedy a Democrat)
- Waited until March on Washington (1963) to throw his weight behind civil rights
- Often symbolic and lacking in real action
- Appointments
- 20% of his Deep South judicial appointments were segregationists
- Party politics
- Worried about losing support of white Democrat voters and felt activities of groups like SNCC were extremely provocative
- Opposed march on Washington
- Fearful of antagonising Congress and jeopardising his Civil Rights Bill
- Legislation
- 1962 Literacy Bill enabling AAs with sixth-grade education to vote failed due to filibustering
- Civil Rights Bill was water down to make it more acceptable to Congress and arguably only got passed due to sympathy over JFK's assassination
- Speeches
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