![]() Source: Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Photograph of Clarence Broadnax at Piccadilly Cafeteria civil rights protest. Johnson Meeting with Civil Rights Leaders and Others in the Cabinet Room. Catsam argues, though the Texan vice-president had a contentious relationship with President Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Johnson was “wily enough to invoke the slain president to help pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.” 4 Though Kennedy looms large in popular memory as a “champion” of civil rights and Cold War liberalism more broadly, the “Kennedy of the imagination” was a rhetorical tool used by both the new president and movement leaders to call the country to act decisively in the slain president’s memory. 3 He used the grief of the country following Kennedy’s assassination to propel legislation through a reluctant Congress. The pressure and publicity came from below by a well-organized, dedicated, persistent and massive movement, pushing a president, who-for pragmatic, personal, or ideological reasons-was hesitant to pursue the issue.īy contrast, Lyndon Johnson aggressively and effectively pursued a comprehensive civil rights bill, making it the cornerstone of his Great Society agenda. Media images of racial violence at home contradicted his international promise to promote democracy and freedom abroad in the Cold War. ![]() 2 The public stand he took on June 11, 1963, happened only after the effective and public grassroots movement brought international attention to the violence and undemocratic reality of segregation and forced him to take a stand. Historians have argued that Kennedy dragged his feet on civil rights, preferring to focus on international affairs rather than domestic policies. 1 As Democratic presidents, they both worried that taking action on civil rights would cost them the political support of southern segregationists who ruled the Solid South wing of the party since the end of the Reconstruction era. ![]() Scholars have noted the extreme differences between Presidents Kennedy and Johnson in legislative strategy and rhetorical approaches in regards to civil rights. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington D.C. Caption “African American Demonstrators outside the White House,” March 12, 1965. Board of Education of Topeka decision in 1954, which declared segregation unconstitutional to the historic legislation that Lyndon Johnson signed with the 1964 Civil Rights Bill and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, presidents had to navigate their constitutional responsibility to “execute” the law of the land with party constraints, shifting public opinion, and, most powerfully, effectively organized grassroots organizations pushing the federal government to act, or to not act. ![]() But these famous speeches were the culmination of decades of organizing by civil rights activists, years of violent-and at times deadly-confrontations between African Americans and segregationists, and months of politicking between the president, members of Congress, and grassroots activists. Their administrations marked a dramatic shift in tone and action from their predecessors, who had been notably timid on issues of racial discrimination. Civil rights demonstrations continued, and after Alabama state troopers attacked demonstrators a year later, Lyndon Johnson powerfully invoked the movement’s slogan “We Shall Overcome” to push Congress to pass a comprehensive voting rights bill.Īs these famous speeches demonstrate, both Kennedy and Johnson came to support the civil rights movement with rhetoric and legislation during their presidencies. Less than six months later, following the national tragedy of Kennedy’s assassination, his successor, Lyndon Johnson, urged the country to honor the legacy of Kennedy’s death with its immediate passage.Ĭongress passed the historic Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964, and yet local barriers preventing African American voting registration remained. Johnson, “Speech Before Congress on Voting Rights (March 15, 1965)” Watch video or read transcript.įor the first time in his administration, Kennedy presented a comprehensive civil rights bill as a legislative priority and a moral responsibility. Johnson, “Address to Joint Session of Congress (November 27, 1963)” Watch video or read transcript. Kennedy called the nation to confront a “moral crisis”-the pervasive, systematic, and oppressive discrimination of African Americans across the country.
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