President Kennedy Meets with Leaders of August 1963 March on Washington

However, Kennedy's Desire to Maintain the Image of an Activist President: 1) Gave Legitimacy to Civil Rights Cause, 2) Made Him Responsive to Civil Rights Pressures, and 3) Encouraged Youth Activism on Civil Rights Issues

• The Politics of Consensus
• Tax Cuts to Stimulate Middle-Class Consumer Spending and Revive the Economy
• Experimentation with Antipoverty Programs

• Narrow Margin of Victory over Nixon means Kennedy is a President without a Mandate
• Congress' Conservative Majority: Alliance Between Republicans and Southern Democrats.
• Southern Democrats Are Disproportionately Powerful in Congress because of Congressional Seniority System and Lack of Republican Opposition in the South
• Since 1930's, Southern Democrats had insisted on States' Rights and Control over Local Management of Federal Programs and No Federal Policy on Race in return for their Support

• A Mixed Record, Supports Southern Position on Crucial Amendments to '57 Civil Rights Bill
• Southerners See Him as a Moderate Alternative to Humphrey in '60 Democratic Primaries

• Black Voters' Loyalty to Northern Democrats because of Civil Rights track record at state and local level
• Nixon Downplays His Civil Rights Records in order to Appeal to the White South
• Kennedy's Campaign Tactics: 1) Promised an executive order barring racial discrimination in federal housing programs "with a stroke of my pen." 2) Made a Phone Call to Coretta Scott King After Dr. King's Oct. 1960 Arrest in Atlanta Sit-In. Robert Kennedy Successfully Pressures Georgia Judge to Release King. Kennedy Campaign Publicizes These Efforts to Northern Black Churches the weekend before the Election.

• Offers Rhetorical Support
• But Is Reluctant to Act Against Southern Democrats
• Eventually Succumbs to Activist Pressure
• Example: Housing Discrimination Executive Order. Kennedy delayed signing the order for 2 years until NAACP letter-writing floods White House with ballpoint pens.

• Use Congressional and State Power to Block Civil Rights Reforms
• Seek to Create a Different Script of Civil Rights Protest 1) Southern State and Local Officials Are Simply Training to Maintain Law and Order, 2) Civil Rights Protesters are the Real Provocateurs of Violence and Disorder 3) Federal Government Is Acting to Suppress States' Rights By Intervening on Civil Rights Issues

Classic Example of Kennedy Civil Rights Pattern

1) Freedom Riders Force Confrontation and Crisis At Every Stage

 

2) Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Attempts to Convince Southern Officials to Protect Riders' Right to Travel in this Case

 

 

 

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy 

3) Alabama Governor Refuses to Act and Accuses Riders of Fomenting Violence

 

 

 

Bus Burns After Freedom Riders Attacked in Anniston, AL

Federal Troops Protect Freedom Riders as They Travel Westward from Montgomery, AL

• Voting Rights Litigation, Largely Unsuccessful
• Private Foundation Funding for Civil Rights Groups to Undertake Voter Registration Campaigns
• The Kennedys hoped Voter Registration would accomplish two goals: 1) convince civil rights groups to stop using protest strategies, 2) create a black voting bloc in the south that would eventually lead southern democrats to moderate their segregationist position.

The Events of 1963

In June, Kennedy Gives Speech, endorsing civil rights agenda and calling for federal legislation to end segregation in public accommodations and racial discrimination in employment.

 

Kennedy Gives Nationally-Televised Speech on Civil Rights

 

The speech comes one month after SCLC Children's Campaign in Birmingham and Gov. George Wallace's "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door" and two months before civil rights groups' March on Washington

 

 

The Children's Campaign in Birmingham, May 1963

• The March on Washington, Aug. 1963. King Describes Vision of a Nation without Racial Barriers or Tensions

Dr. King at the March on Washington, August 1963

• The Kennedy Assassination: End or Beginning? Did the Assassination End Historic Opportunity for Racial Change? Or did it galvanize popular support for Civil Rights Movement and Other Domestic Reforms?