The Sixties: Victories and Defeats

Kennedy during his 1960 campaign showed himself as a crusader for black rights , but had fears that this kind of support would alienate southern democratic votes . It was because of this fear that forced him to play down civil rights legislation (875 . However , the fight for civil rights and the movement could wait for no man and that included Kennedy 's indirect approach during his presidency . However , Kennedy 's approach with caution and restraint was necessary at that time Avoiding an early , and possibly fatal , defeat in Congress , he had waited until

a national consensus emerged and then had carefully channeled it behind effective legislation (877 . The phrase I liked was referring to Kennedy wanting to be the fox rather than a lion on civil rights . In May of 1961 , civil rights began to emerge into public view when an organization named the Congress of Racial Equality or CORE put together the Freedom Ride

This group had organized biracial group of citizens to demonstrate how a 1960 Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on all bus and train stations that used interstate commerce . When the group arrived , there was trouble and the freedom riders , as they were called , were attacked by an angry mob . To Kennedy this proved to be a problem . He had been overseeing the problems in Berlin and he believed American citizen 's attention at that time should have been directed towards this , the oppression of communism . In September of 1961 , the Interstate Commission finally listened to the attorney general and issued a ban on segregation in interstate terminals and buses . This ended the freedom rides . The next historic incident involving civil rights was when James Meredith tried to enroll in the all white University of Mississippi

When this incident happened Kennedy 's both John and Robert , had to work closely with Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett to avoid violence Robert Kennedy reinforced his concern for the legal aspect rather than the moral aspect of what was going on . Governor Barnett promised cooperation but the night before John Meredith was to enroll in school a mob attacked federal marshals and the National Guard that had been sent to protect Meredith (876 . Meredith eventually graduated from that university

It was the arrival of Martin Luther King that helped to speed Kennedy 's approach to civil rights in office . Kennedy became very vocal on his stand of racial justice . A massive protest in the spring of 1963 happened in the south 's most segregated city , Birmingham . The protests were efforts to integrating public facilities and opening up jobs for blacks (876 . But this protest ended in arrest for the protesters and King . This empowered King even more and writing from his cell , he swore to bring the issue of racial injustice to the national attention . Civil Rights became known nationally when on May 3rd protesters that consisted of thousands of children were attacked by authorities . With a horrified nation watching scene after scene of this brutality on television , the Kennedy administration...