Announcer: At this time, I have the honor to present to you...the moral leader of our
nation.
I have the pleasure to present to you…
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
You'll notice the exact date- the exact issues
to protest were changed several times, but in spring 1962, civil rights leaders announced
they would have a march on Washington for 'Jobs and Freedom' (Stern, 94).
You'll also notice they were immediately met with resistance.
Even though Dr. King wrote to a colleague that the march could be, "one of the greatest
demonstrations for freedom that has ever been held in America,", the establishment in
Washington believed the protests could be counterproductive, leading to civil unrest.
According to Mark Stern in his book "Calculating Visions":
"Rumors flew about Washington that massive sit-ins in the Congress or traffic blockages
in the streets would be used to disrupt the nation's capitol.
Fear was in the air.
'How can this country endure,' asked Senator Russell of Georgia, 'when we legislate on
the basis of threat and intimidations from mobs?'"
But it wasn't only southern senators with concerns.
Even Presidents of the AFL-CIO and NAACP feared that clashes in DC could hurt the effort to
pass sweeping civil rights legislation through the Congress (Stern, 94).
Two days later, President Kennedy hosted the organizers of the march in the White House.
His purpose was clear: lower both the expectations and the initiative of the activists.
Lower their expectations that civil rights legislation could be passed without compromise
- lower their initiative to have a large event in Washington DC.
He told them, "We want success in the Congress, not a big show on the capitol,".
In other words, stay home.
Don't demonstrate.
Even admitting that sit-ins and freedom rides had done wonders to change public opinion,
Kennedy requested the leaders abandon their plans (Dallek, 642).
You might be wondering why Kennedy would resist a march, a tactic he knew to be effective.
JFK was an icon of the Civil Rights Movement, and yet there he was, actively resisting organizers.
This isn't an isolated example; as you'll see, Kennedy wasn't a natural leader on
civil rights, and to truly grasp his imperfections with this topic, we need to go deeper.
The March on Washington was planned 100 years after Abraham Lincoln signed the emancipation
proclamation.
Between these two events, the proclamation and the march, black Americans participated
in every American military conflict.
Over 1 million enlisted in World War 2 alone (New Yorker, PBS).
And yet when they returned home, they continued to face a system designed to keep them segregated
in public, and distanced from the ballot box.
In 1940, only 3% of African Americans in the South were registered to vote (ACLU).
1954's Brown vs. Board of Education, declaring segregated schools for black and white children
unconstitutional, was widely resisted.
And the 1957 Civil Rights Act passed under the Eisenhower Administration lacked the teeth
necessary to substantively improve these conditions.
In fact, Eisenhower had to use the National Guard to force the integration of 9 African
American students into Little Rock Central High School.
These were the rumbles under society, threatening a larger quake.
With the '57 Civil Rights Act, the Federal Government had shown its willingness to intervene,
but a more active chief executive would be necessary to achieve full constitutional rights
for African Americans.
Enter our mixed figure: John F. Kennedy.
As the Senator from Massachusetts, he supported the watered down reforms of the 50's.
But rather than pushing for something more substantive, he always had his eye on the
politics- specifically, the Presidency.
As Robert Dallek writes in his biography of Kennedy "An Unfinished Life": "Jack's
interest in civil rights was more political than moral.
The only blacks he knew were chauffeurs, valets, or domestics, with whom he had minimal contact...He
could not empathize, and only faintly sympathize, with the pains felt by African Americans,".
But you can push this even further.
Kennedy knew that Democratic Party victory, his victory in a national election, involved
winning black voters while also not alienating the vast Democratic South.
Again, reading from Mark Stern's Calculating Visions: "the black rights issue was not
of particular interest to him...Kennedy, the senator, was never to stray too far into the
civil rights thicket.
He was keenly aware of the Democratic Party divisions over civil rights.
White southerners wanted the federal government to stay away from this issue; in their view
it was strictly a state matter.
Blacks and their allies wanted federal intervention in civil rights; it was the only way to bring
about change,".
These calculations didn't end once Kennedy entered the 1960 Presidential election against
then Vice President Richard Nixon.
Announcer: This is the second in a series of programs unmatched in history.
Never have so many people seen the major candidates for President of the United States at the
same time.
And here tonight are...The Republican candidate, Vice President Richard M. Nixon.
And the Democratic candidate, Senator John F. Kennedy.
Will: In the second Presidential debate, Kennedy attacked Nixon for failing to address central
questions on civil rights, "Well, Mr. Nixon hasn't discussed the two basic questions:
what is going to be done and what will be his policy on implementing the Supreme Court
decision of 1954?
Secondly, what's he going to do to provide fair employment?"
Then, when asked to submit a solution of his own, he gave a sorry four-point plan: one
which already happened a few years before, and three points which were vague and noncommittal.
If you're like me, you'll find his words empty...and...'politiciany'
"We sit on a conspicuous stage.
We are a goldfish bowl before the world.
We have to practice what we preach.
We set a very high standard for ourselves.
The Communists do not.
They set a low standard of materialism.
We preach in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution, in the statement
of our greatest leaders, we preach very high standards,"
This was the political reality: both Presidential candidates vaguely supportive of civil rights,
but neither with concrete plans.
Kennedy and the Democratic Party platform were so imprecise, in fact, that a New York
Times editorial declared Nixon's plan "somewhat more realistic," (Stern 30, NYT 7/28/60).
All that said, Kennedy's calculation that he could be the 'lesser of two evils'
paid off.
Anchor: "Senator Kennedy, his wife and mother go into the armory for his victory speech.
Here inside the armory the once Junior Senator from Massachusetts, now at the age of 43,
the President-elect of the United States," He won the 1960 election, achieving over 70%
of the African American vote.
Anchor: "The popular vote column by the way- it's still very close- uh...Senator
Kennedy's lead is about, uh, roughly, 700,000,"
The election was so narrow that he wouldn't have won without them.
And so the logical question was, now in power, would he continue to operate as a hollow supporter
of civil rights, or would he rise to the occasion, and let actions overcome his missing words?
Historian Thomas Reeves wrote of Kennedy's values entering office.
He brought, "many of the ideas his father had instilled in all the Kennedy children,
among them 'his overall lack of interest in domestic reform,'" (Logsdon 38, Reeves
310).
Tensions between the incoming President and civil rights leaders were high.
Martin Luther King told Harris Wofford that while, "I'm convinced that he has the
understanding and the political skill...I'm afraid that the moral passion is missing,"
(Dallek, 380).
To him, Kennedy seemed dedicated only to "token integration".
Again, reading from Dallek's An Unfinished Life, "Much of the resentment during the
first six months of Kennedy's term concerned the fact that he would neither sign a promised
Executive Order desegregating federally financed housing nor ask Congress for a civil rights
law,"
Aside from occasional actions of the Justice Department under Bobby Kennedy on voting rights,
or the hiring of quote "50 outstanding negroes" to high administrative posts, JFK's first
months in office were mute on civil rights (Dallek 383).
In 'The Evolving Presidency', Michael Nelson writes that, "Not only did he fail
to press for new laws to protect the rights of African Americans and other racial minorities,
but he also resisted taking the executive actions he had promised during the campaign,
such as ending discrimination in federally funded public housing,"
To civil rights leaders, it seemed that the President would never change strategy.
Kennedy was settling for political stability over fundamental change.
But as you'll see, events in the coming years would rattle his stance.
Starting in 1961, black and white activists rode interstate buses through the deep south
to protest segregation in public transportation.
After all, the Supreme Court Decision in Virginia vs. Boynton had made racial seating in interstate
travel illegal.
For their efforts, the activists were stopped, beaten, firebombed- if lucky, merely arrested.
Kennedy, while pursuing backroom deals to end the violence, in my opinion, came to an
odd conclusion: that the provocations of protesters were antagonizing whites.
Rather than being supportive, he believed that the rides needed to end.
"Can't you get your goddamned friends off those buses?"
He was more embarrassed than concerned, citing an upcoming meeting with Soviet Secretary
Khrushchev as a reason to stop the rides.
How foolish would he appear to the Russians with racial tensions boiling back home (Stern
59)?
Through this, Kennedy became what Dr. King later described as the 'negro's great
stumbling block', not the 'Ku Klux Klanner', but rather "the white moderate who is more
devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence
of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says 'I
agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;'"
This letter was part of an effort to combat Kennedy's apathy.
King endeavored to awaken the nation's conscience.
The words were written by King sitting in a jail cell in Birmingham Alabama, where he
was arrested for demonstrating against that city's racial segregation, potentially the
worst in the entire nation.
In May 1963, the all-white local politicians involved the all-white police force and fire
department to prevent quote "parading, demonstrating, boycotting," or "picketing" of any kind.
Officer: "You are in violation of section 1159 of the city code: demonstratin' and
paradin' without a permit- also violating the traffic --junction against paradin'"
Those in violation were met with nightclubs, canines, and water hoses.
If the President wouldn't act, Dr. King hoped the images on TV of peaceful demonstrations
suppressed with such violence would awaken a movement, forcing action from the White
House.
At the climax of the campaign in Birmingham, the activists made the controversial decision
to involve children in the marches.
Steven Levingston in his book 'Kennedy and King' describes how this tactic played out
with authorities: "...water burst from the fire hoses, bombarding
the children, knocking them to the ground and spinning them down the street...to enhance
the force, firefighters funneled the flow of two hoses into one nozzle, packing it with
such ballistic fury it dislodged bricks from buildings.
These jets were directed at the children, driving across their bodies, lacerating their
flesh, tearing clothing off their backs," (Levingston, 352).
Levingston goes on to write: "Before Birmingham, only 4 percent of Americans
polled believed civil rights was the country's most urgent issue; after Birmingham, that
figure jumped to 52%".
Announcer: "This is what happened as Nicholas Katzenbach accompanied by two federal marshals
left their car and approached governor wallace standing in the schoolhouse door.
The two negro students, Vivien Malone and Jimmy A. Hood, stayed in the car.
The time was about 12:47 pm Eastern Daylight Time,"
A month later, in June 1963, the University of Alabama was ordered by a federal district
judge to integrate Vivien Malone and James Hood into their student body.
Alabama Governor George Wallace literally stood in the door of the Foster Auditorium
on campus in order to block their registration, only standing down when ordered by the national
guard (Dallek, 603).
Then, and only then- indeed that very night after Gov. Wallace stood down, Kennedy snapped
into action.
So quickly, it seems like the story gets ahead of itself.
On television and with moral clarity, Kennedy was ready to give full-throated support to
comprehensive civil rights legislation.
"We are confronted primarily with a moral issue.
It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution...One hundred
years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs,
their grandsons, are not fully free.
They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice.
They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression.
And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all
its citizens are free."
So wait a minute, because our story seemingly advanced at random.
We established President Kennedy as a man of inaction.
He rejected countless previous opportunities to intervene on behalf of civil rights, and
now suddenly, there he was- a changed man?
A cynic looks at Kennedy at this moment, and critiques the President.
Making a plea on television didn't advance a civil rights bill through the congress.
Vice President Lyndon Johnson, someone who made their career negotiating bills in the
Senate, doubted that it could be done (Dallek 602).
And forces were immediately set against the bill as seventeen southern senators met for
over an hour the next morning to strategize how to kill it at all costs (Levingston, 407).
On the other hand, no President before had ever spoken on the issue with absolution and
conviction.
Clearly, Kennedy made the realization that his 'balancing act' style strategy was
failing.
Furthermore, it seems he felt a compulsion to act as a moral leader in that moment.
Levingston writes that: "...he not only asserted his political will, he also lifted
the nation onto a higher moral plane,".
Though five months prior he had told confidants that civil rights legislation was off the
table, he clearly changed his mind (Levingston 406).
Both he and Vice President Johnson recognized that their actions might mean losing the south
to Republicans for generations to come, but they did it anyway.
And the next day, civil rights leaders like Dr. King flooded the White House with praise.
Now let me give you my opinion, because after watching this far, you might find yourself
believing that President Kennedy is the protagonist of our story.
Like great heros in all classic tales, a champion is born, faces a challenge, rejects his call
to action, but eventually, makes the choice to fight for what's rights and to grow as
a person.
But unfortunately, history is not a fairytale, and John F. Kennedy is not a hero.
Kennedy, the American people, the leadership in Congress, the future President who actually
would usher through the passage of civil rights legislation in 1964, they all were dragged
by their collars in the direction of justice.
At every turn, it was civil rights leaders like Dr. King who impressed the dire urgency
of action onto the President.
It was they who surveyed the candidates in 1960, demanding their agendas be improved-
who made constant contact with the newly elected Commander-in-chief, asking why his housing
reforms weren't in place, why he wasn't protecting the freedom riders, why he only
supported 'token integration' of public schools- who wrote to him and the white establishment
from a jail cell, "For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!'
It rings clear in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity.
This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'"
Kennedy may have eventually come to the decision to introduce civil rights legislation- and
maybe he did grow as a leader in doing so, but the political capital necessary was earned
through the demonstrations in Birmingham, the citizens who confronted german shepherds
and water hoses to grind urgency in public support from 4% to 52%.
We see the true face of the unrushed Kennedy, when just 10 days after making his lauded
speech to the nation, he relapsed.
Sanguine from his saline sack of the status quo, he once again he told civil rights leaders
gathered in the White House that they should "wait" and not march on Washington DC.
"We want success in the Congress, not a big show on the capitol...Now we are in a
new phase, the legislative phase..to get votes we need we have, first, to oppose demonstrations
which will lead to violence, and, second, give Congress a fair chance to work its will,"
Kennedy hadn't changed.
Luckily, neither had they.
"Frankly," King told him, "I have never engaged in any direct action movement which
did not seem ill-timed," A. Philip Randolph, speaking for the entire
group, added, "There will be a march,"
Let us rise to the call of freedom- loving blood that is in us and send our answer to
the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South.
In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the
dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny . . . and I say . . . segregation
today . . . segregation tomorrow . . . segregation forever.
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