Civil Rights: Opposition to Change 1955-68

OPPOSITION FROM PRESIDENTS

EISENHOWER

• Believed in gradual change
• Thought campaigns would only create further hostility
• This belief caused a lack of intervention againt unconstitutional violence against black citizen

KENNEDY

• Horrified by the violent Freedom Rides
• Advocate to abandon protests and support voter registration
• 1962 Voter Education Programme gave a grant, to fund voter registration support, to all those who abandoned Civil Rights campaigns
• Resisted Federal intervention, despite calls during the Freedon Rides

JOHNSON

• Ended co-operation with King after he publically criticised the Vietnam War
• No support for Northern campaigns; he criticised Chicago and didn't support the Poor Peoples Campain

OPPOSITION FROM CONGRESS

• Senator Thurmond had a fillibuster lasting 24 hours, 18 minutes against the 1957 Civil Rights Act
• 18 democrats worked together for a 125 hour fillibuster against the 1960 Civil Rights Act
• 1968 Civil Rights Act weakened so it couldn't enforce the laws

OPPOSITION FROM FBI

• COINTELPRO…