Civil rights during the Kennedy administration, 1961-1963 : a collection from the holdings of the John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts

Author / Creator

Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963

Available as

Online

Summary

"There is no way of determining with precision how much the Kennedy administration contributed to the creation of this social movement, but there can be little doubt that it played an important rol...

"There is no way of determining with precision how much the Kennedy administration contributed to the creation of this social movement, but there can be little doubt that it played an important role in its birth and development. By word and deed, through rhetoric and substantive action, President Kennedy helped bring about what was sometimes called a revolution of rising expectations. He never urged people to take to the streets--indeed he was politically discomfited by their doing so--but he fostered an atmosphere where protests against the status quo could and did occur. In fact, the Kennedy administration and the Civil Rights Movement had a symbiotic relationship, with each encouraging the other to take the next step, until a social movement came into being and President Kennedy responded in turn to that movement by proposing the most comprehensive civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. He thereby initiated what could reasonably be called the Second Reconstruction."--vendor website.

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