Kennedy and Civil Rights

JFK's record on Civil Rights was in reality very mixed. In 1960 Kennedy won the Presidency with 68% of the African-American vote. It was this vote that gave him the edge in such key states as Illinois, Michigan and South Carolina in what was the closest election for some time. He also carried the South which pours yet more cold water on the notion that one cannot win the South and the Black Vote at the same time. However JFK’s record on civil rights was not without controversy.

For one he was considered a slow mover on key deliverables and in the words of civil rights leader Julian Bond

"He was a good figure, but not a great figure in my view, and was disappointing in many ways."

He took flak for his tepid response to the plight of the Congress of Racial Equality (Freedom Riders) in their fight to integrate bus services between Washington DC and New Orleans and only intervened after angry white mobs fire-bombed buses in Alabama in May of 1961. In fact Barbara Perry a noted Kennedy biographer had this to say

“The Kennedys saw the Freedom Rides as really a no-win situation for them politically.”

Nevertheless he would eventually side with the better judgement when his brother Robert Kennedy asked the Interstate Commerce Commission to remove bans on bus segregation.

Kennedy’s presidency was dogged by the James Meredith case where a 29 year old Black man and air force veteran attempted to enrol at the all-white University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). The pushback from the school was virulent. Kennedy has been accused of dragging his feet in negotiations with the Southern Democrat segregationist governor Ross Barnett in resolving this issue and eventually would be forced by necessity more than anything else to call in the federal troops after two people were killed following campus wide riots.

In fairness to Kennedy he did act decisively in April 1963 following the Birmingham riots and by July of 1963 had sent through a Civil Rights Bill to Congress. However the bill did not survive and the fact that it left out aspects about integrating public facilities shows that he would only go so far in pushing through a Civil Rights agenda.

Worth noting here is that Democratic Party’s slow approach towards civil rights and the fact that he seemed to be stalling on key initiatives seems to be the factor that drive Malcolm X’s ‘chump’ speech delivered on April 3rd, 1964 where he admonished the Black electorate for openly giving the Democrats their support for virtually nothing in return.