What was jfk views on civil rights

What Smith was trying to convey was that having to make a plea to the attorney general for rights that should intrinsically be his as an American citizen made him feel like vomiting. Nonetheless, the assault hit Kennedy between the eyes.

As he turned to ignore Smith, the anger in the room hissed louder. Kennedy sat down, reeling, trying to collect himself. The Irish were persecuted, too, he told the group. His grandfather had landed on American shores as the object of prejudice, and now, two generations later, his brother was president.

As he took in Kennedy's words, Baldwin's scorn for his insularity was as palpable as his shock at his naivete; his family had been in America far longer, Baldwin countered, and they were still clinging to society's lowest rung. Though the meeting lasted three hours, it stayed with Kennedy far longer.

Bobby expected to be an honorary black … he thought he knew so much -- and he didn't. Initially, Kennedy seethed -- afterward, he excoriated Baldwin to others -- but as his anger cooled, his mind began to change, turning to empathy.

In his own way, Bobby Kennedy knew what it was to grow up feeling inferior, in his case in the shadow of his formidable older brothers, and he talked about how he would feel if his children were on the other side of Jim Crow segregation.

If he had been born black in America, he told an aide several days after the New York meeting, his feelings wouldn't have differed much from those of Baldwin. Afterward, he urged his brother to embrace civil rights as a moral issue.

Though the bulk of President Kennedy's advisors counseled him against making his speech on June 11, claiming it was too soon, Bobby Kennedy was the lone exception.

It offers a lesson for today. Painful as it may have been, Bobby Kennedy listened to those whose everyday experiences as Americans were far different from his. He acknowledged his privilege, he opened his mind and his heart. They were frequently denied access to public facilities, prohibited from exercising their voting rights, and subjected to racist violence. Under leaders such as King, African Americans organized nonviolent protests to gain access to public facilities.

They sued in the courts for equal treatment, and used the pulpits and the press to eloquently state the case for full citizenship. And they implored their president to take a forceful public stand by issuing a call for comprehensive civil rights legislation. For the first two years of his administration, Kennedy ignored the call.

The Democrats held a narrow majority in Congress, and many of the Democratic seats were held by Southerners who opposed civil rights legislation. The president needed the white Southern vote to win reelection in So Kennedy adopted a cautious approach to civil rights, emphasizing enforcement of existing laws over the creation of new ones.

Kennedy pushed civil rights on many fronts. He ordered his attorney general to submit friends of the court briefs on behalf of civil rights litigants.

He appointed African Americans to positions within his administration, named Thurgood Marshall to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, and supported voter registration drives. But such an approach was problematic. By not addressing civil rights publicly and comprehensively, Kennedy was forced to address racial incidents on a case by case basis -- often after they had escalated to violence.

Kennedy sent federal marshals to protect the protesters. But even armed marshals could not guarantee protection.

In September , James Meredith, a black man, attempted to register at the segregated University of Mississippi at Oxford. Kennedy had brokered a deal with segregationist governor Ross Barnett. The registration would occur on a Sunday, when opposition forces were least likely to be active.

Federal marshals would be there to protect Meredith. Despite the progress made, significant inequalities still existed. Subjective literacy tests were used to deny Black Americans their right to vote. They also had unequal access to education and employment.

By late , Senator John F. Kennedy and his campaign team were eager to find a way to pull ahead in the final days of the presidential race. On October 19, Dr. King was sentenced to six months of hard labor for violating his probation on a previous misdemeanor. Meanwhile, Robert Kennedy called the judge and was able to convince him to release King. Senator John F. Kennedy won seventy percent of the Black vote in November. During his first few days in office, President Kennedy instructed his cabinet secretaries to increase hiring of Black federal employees.

He also requested an audit of diversity in federal employment and pay grades, and called for initiatives to diversify the workforce. Kennedy was reluctant to propose major civil rights legislation during his first term for fear of losing the support of Southern Democrats, many of whom benefited from and supported segregation policies.

President Kennedy needed their support to pass his economic and foreign policy agendas, and to support his reelection. In May , two groups of young activists set out from Washington D. They passed through multiple states without major incidence. Upon arriving in South Carolina, some of the riders, including John Lewis , were attacked and beaten. When the Freedom Riders reached Alabama, their bus was fire-bombed, riders were forced to flee into a white mob that surrounded their bus, and were beaten with iron bars.

By September, the ICC ruled in favor of the petition. In April , Dr. King and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth organized the Birmingham Campaign. These images were broadcast across the country. Robert Kennedy sent his Assistant Attorney General, Burke Marshall, to Birmingham to mediate negotiations between the campaign and white southern business leaders.

An agreement came that May to desegregate lunch counters and other places of business. In response to this violence, President Kennedy readied 3, federal troops outside of Birmingham. Van Vechten, C. The meeting did not go well. As the meeting continued, the group expressed their grievances with the Kennedy administration and their handling of civil rights.

The group felt that he was trying to compare two different experiences and was minimizing the hardship faced by Black Americans for centuries. As Kennedy learned to empathize with the Black community and continued to listen, the more he believed Congressional action was critical. Trikosko, M. Mississippi Oxford, During the Kennedy administration, significant progress was made in the integration of public schools and universities.