Cold War concerns, which guided U.S. policy in Cuba and Vietnam, also motivated the Kennedy administration’s steps toward racial equality. Realizing that legal segregation and widespread discrimination hurt the country’s chances of gaining allies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the federal government increased efforts to secure the civil rights of African Americans in the 1960s. During his presidential campaign, Kennedy intimated his support for civil rights and worked to secure the release of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., who had been arrested following a demonstration. These actions motivated many African American voters to support Kennedy. However, lacking widespread backing in Congress and anxious not to offend White southerners, Kennedy was cautious in assisting African Americans in their fight for full citizenship rights.

His strongest focus was on securing the voting rights of African Americans. Kennedy feared the loss of support from southern White Democrats and the impact a struggle over civil rights could have on his foreign policy agenda as well as on his reelection in 1964. Still, he thought voter registration drives far preferable to the boycotts, sit-ins, and integration marches that had generated such intense global media coverage in previous years.

Figure 1. Escorted by a U.S. marshal and the assistant attorney general for civil rights, James Meredith (center) enters the University of Mississippi over the riotous protests of white southerners. Meredith later attempted a “March against Fear” in 1966 to protest the inability of southern African Americans to vote. His walk ended when a passing motorist shot and wounded him. (credit: Library of Congress)

In 1960, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which permitted federal courts to appoint referees to guarantee that qualified persons would be registered to vote. Encouraged by the new legislation, Kennedy focused on the passage of a constitutional amendment outlawing poll taxes, a tactic that southern states used to disenfranchise African American voters. Originally proposed by President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights, the idea was largely forgotten during Eisenhower’s time in office. Kennedy, however, revived it and convinced Spessard Holland, a conservative Florida senator, to introduce the proposed amendment in Congress. It passed both houses of Congress and was sent to the states for ratification in September 1962.

Kennedy also reacted to the demands of the civil rights movement for equality in education. For example, when African American student James Meredith, encouraged by Kennedy’s speeches, attempted to enroll at the segregated University of Mississippi in 1962, riots broke out on campus. On an evening known infamously as the Battle of Ole Miss, segregationists clashed with troops in the middle of campus, resulting in two deaths and hundreds of injuries. The president responded by sending the U.S. Army and National Guard to Oxford, Mississippi, to support the U.S. Marshals that his brother Robert, the attorney general, had dispatched.

Following similar violence at the University of Alabama when two African American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, attempted to enroll in 1963, Kennedy responded with a bill that would give the federal government greater power to enforce school desegregation, prohibit segregation in public accommodations, and outlaw discrimination in employment. Kennedy did not live to see his bill enacted, but Lyndon Johnson ensured the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights act in the first year of his presidency.

Tragedy in Dallas: President Kennedy’s Assassination

Figure 2. Picture of President Kennedy in the limousine in Dallas, Texas, on Main Street, minutes before he was assassinated.

Although his stance on civil rights won him support in the African American community and his steely performance during the Cuban Missile Crisis led his overall popularity to surge, Kennedy understood that he had to solidify his base in the South to secure his reelection. On November 21, 1963, he accompanied Lyndon Johnson to Texas to rally his supporters. The next day, shots rang out as Kennedy’s motorcade made its way through the streets of Dallas. Seriously injured, Kennedy was rushed to Parkland Hospital and pronounced dead.

The gunfire that killed Kennedy appeared to come from the upper stories of the Texas School Book Depository building. Later that day, Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee at the depository and a trained sniper, was arrested. Two days later, while being transferred from Dallas police headquarters to the county jail, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner who claimed he acted to avenge the president.

Figure 3. Lee Harvey Oswald (center) was arrested at the Texas Theatre in Dallas a few hours after shooting President Kennedy.

Almost immediately, rumors began to circulate regarding the Kennedy assassination, and conspiracy theorists, pointing to the unlikely coincidence of Oswald’s murder a few days after Kennedy’s, began to propose alternate theories about the events. To quiet the rumors and allay fears that the government was hiding evidence, Lyndon Johnson, Kennedy’s successor, appointed a fact-finding commission headed by Earl Warren, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, to examine all the evidence and render a verdict. The Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone and there had been no conspiracy. The commission’s ruling failed to satisfy many, and multiple theories have sprung up over time. No credible evidence has ever been uncovered, however, to prove either that someone other than Oswald murdered Kennedy or that Oswald acted with co-conspirators.

Civil Rights Legislation

Under Kennedy’s leadership, the civil rights bill had passed the House of Representatives, but a filibuster in the Senate led by Southerners from his own party stalled the bill’s progress. Johnson, a master parliamentarian from his days as Senate Majority Leader, marshaled his considerable personal influence and memories of his fallen predecessor to break the filibuster. This led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, widely considered to be among the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in American history. The Act banned discrimination in public accommodations, sought to aid schools in efforts to desegregate, and prohibited federal funding of programs that permitted racial segregation. Further, it barred discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, or gender, and established an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Figure 4. Alabama State Troopers attack civil rights demonstrators outside Selma, Alabama, on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965.

Protecting African Americans’ right to vote was as important as ending racial inequality in the United States. In January 1964, two-thirds of the states finally ratified the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, prohibiting the imposition of poll taxes on voters. Poverty would no longer serve as an obstacle to voting. Other impediments remained, however. White resistance and violence frequently attempted to block southern African American voters from registering.

Selma to Montgomery Marches

Figure 5. African American marchers in Selma, Alabama, were attacked by state police officers in 1965, and the resulting “Bloody Sunday” helped create support for the civil rights movement among northern White people. (credit: Library of Congress)

The civil rights movement created space for political leaders to pass legislation, and the movement continued pushing forward. Direct action continued through the summer of 1964, as student-run organizations like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) helped with Freedom Summer in Mississippi, a drive to register African American voters in a state with an ugly history of discrimination. Freedom Summer campaigners set up schools for African American children and helped potential voters understand their rights. Even amidst progress, intimidation and violent resistance against civil rights continued, particularly in regions with longstanding traditions of segregation. In March 1965, activists attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on behalf of local African American voting rights.

On March 7, 1965, the planned protest turned into “Bloody Sunday” when marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge encountered a cordon of state police, wielding batons and tear gas. Images of White brutality appeared on television screens throughout the nation and in newspapers around the world. The televised violence led many Americans from outside the South to put pressure on Congress to prioritize a voting rights bill. Weeks later, protestors would finally have the backing and clearance to march from Selma to Montgomery.

Figure 6. Marchers and civil rights activists are forced to turn around on the Pettus Bridge during the second march in Selma.

Completing the march on Thursday, March 25, 1965, 25,000 people gathered on the steps of the State Capitol Building where Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the speech “How Long, Not Long” in which he said, “I know you are asking today, How long will it take? I come to say to you this afternoon however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long.”^[1]

Deeply disturbed by the violence in Alabama and Governor George Wallace’s refusal to address it, Johnson introduced a bill in Congress that would remove ongoing obstacles for African American voters and lend federal support to their cause. His proposal, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, prohibited states and local governments from passing laws that discriminated against voters on the basis of race. Literacy tests and other barriers to voting were thus outlawed. It also allowed greater federal oversight of election procedures in regions with a history of racial discrimination and disenfranchisement. Following the passage of the act, a quarter of a million African Americans registered to vote, and by 1967, the majority of African Americans had done so. Johnson’s final piece of civil rights legislation was the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, national origin, or religion.

Figure 7. The Voting Rights Act (a) was signed into law on August 6, 1965, in the presence of major figures of the civil rights movement, including Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. (b).