The Civil Rights Movement - Essay Example

JFKs Influence on the Civil Rights Movement In USA civil rights movement was one of the key incidents in their history. The movement has a very long and eventful history and many historians believe that 1950s and 1960s was the key phase in the American civil rights movement. The movement was not about the fight of courageous African-Americans in the USA, but it was also about the involvement of hundreds and thousands of college students and various religious leaders across the country. In order to establishes equal rights for one and all the activists of that time adopted number of ways to protest such as legal challenges, various form of civil protests including sit-ins, marches, and freedom rides etc. The movement was more or less non-violent in nature. The civil rights movement of the people of America was a success as the protest was resultant into changes in attitude of the people of America mainly the upper class towards the African-Americans. From a broader perspective not all who stressed for racial fairness between 1954 and 1968 did so in the expectation of endorsingpeaceful social change. A noteworthyshare of the civil rights drive was, however, dedicated to the idea of diplomatic challenges, rather than bloodstainedconfrontation or attack, to change racist establishments. Historian does believe that USA President John F. Kennedy was a significant character associated with the civil rights movement in the USA. The paper is critically analyzing the role played by USA president John F. Kennedy during the 1960s civil rights movement in the USA. The thesis associated with this paper is: Is John F Kennedy is the most influential president of the USA in terms of implementation of Civil Rights and other policy implementation. John F Kennedy and Civil Rights Movement in USA: John F Kennedy was considered as one of the key player in the successful implementation of civil rights movement in the USA.As a matter of fact his role in the civil rights movement of 1960s was considered as of his greatest legacies. His speech during 1963 while framing the civil rights as both legitimate and moral authoritative force helped to a great extent to form the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and made him an icon of the movement. During 1960, there was a President election scheduled to be held in the USA and candidates for that post John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. The movement was so intense that neither of them was able to ignore that. John F. Kennedy was the winner of that election and his sympathy for civil rights leader Martin Luther King when he was in jail was a great step taken by him which created an image of his among the African-American as the Civil Right Movement sympathetic. After winning the election there was a very slow start by him in terms of implementing various promises that he made during his election campaign. During 1962, Kennedy did issue an executive order to end housing discrimination, but it was a very low profile order related to this subject and was not up to the expectation of the civil rights leaders. It was a well-established fact that during his first two years in the power he was less focused on the civil rights movement and devoted his concentration on other topics. As a matter of fact Cooper & Khan (2013) in their review has mentioned that “Kennedy was worried about the rest of his domestic agenda in the United States Congress, which he thought would be bottled up if he completely upset the Southern segregationists right off the bat; President Kennedy as a pragmatist realized that he would do more damage to his presidency and perhaps his re-election bid in 1964 if he moved too quickly and too courageously on civil rights." (Cooper & Khan, 2013). Till the end of 1961-Kennedy was not in a mood to interfere as in his opinion the movement was politically not carrying any political significance for him. But the violent was started to exceed gradually and there was more pressure on J.F. Kennedy to act accordingly. The movement reached its boiling point in the year 1963when the civil rights activist started to campaign in the city as well. The campaign was consisted of protest march in the heart of the city, boycotts, lunch counter sit-in etc. During May, 1963 1000children joined the protest as well. To ensure free movement of the government activity USA police forced to act harsh on them and the image of the government’s activity was spread all over the America with the help of Media that triggered a national outrage. That was the point when J F Kennedy forced to act. During his first announcement about civil rights he was not so much keen and the bill fail miserably in the house of the parliament but in 1963 he was more prepared. He made civil rights a moral issue and his speech in the US television was a landmark in the civil rights movement of USA. (Cooper & Khan,2013; Walsh, 2013) On a larger perspective the civil rights movement affected the US Society deeply. There are two major laws passed by the US congress in order to provide equal rights to all the African-Americans in the country and at the same time to the other minorities as well. As a matter of fact John F. Kennedy was sympathetic towards the civil right activists in the country as he thought that African American and other minority groups in the country deserved equal rights. In his point of view “racial discrimination in the United States, particularly highly public displays of violence and terror against racial minorities, embarrassed America internationally.” (Constitutional Rights Foundation2014) J.F.K. & his Cautious Path to Civil Rights: Number of historian till today believes that John F. Kennedy was a bit slow to response to the civil rights movement in the USA. It was a proven fact that he was able to win the election on the basis of vote he got by publically stating that he was ready to help the Africans-American to get equal rights once he was in the white house and also openly offered help to one of the most popular Civil rights activist of USA Martin L King. Dallek (2007) in his report has mentioned that “Although more a civil rights opportunist than a passionate convert to the cause, Kennedy sent repeated messages to the civil rights activists” before the election took place in 1960s, but after getting elected Kennedy was “reluctant to give in to demands for prompt and forceful action on civil rights.” (Dallek, 2007). In his opening speech to the nation he was more focused on various other aspects like foreign affairs, various political agenda etc. In earlier phase the only two steps taken by him in order to review the demands of civil right activists in the USA were appointing Harris Wofford, a protruding generous supporter of black equality, as a special presidential assistant for civil rights and setting up “he Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity in 1961.” (Dallek, 2007). It was a very clear indication that John F Kennedy was not in mood to implement various promises that he made to the civil rights activist before coming to the power straight away, moreover he was very slow at the beginning to act on the demands of the activities in various parts of the country. Dallek in his report has also mentioned that “Historians have tended to believe that little more than political cynicism ever animated John Kennedys response to civil rights—before and during his abbreviated presidency. As a rebellion among African Americans against Southern racism was mounting, J.F.K. saw the issue as less a moral crusade for the soul of America, as many white liberals believed it to be, than a potential barrier to his presidential nomination” (Dallek, 2007). So he wanted to secure support from both end before the election to ensure his victory. Kennedy’s Legacy endures after 50 years of Civil Rights Movement: John F Kennedy was selected as the president of USA in the year of 1960. Fifty years later still today many people believes that his “thousand days in the Oval Office continues to be seen in positive repercussions from the civil rights movement and problematic ones from the Vietnam War.” (Page, 2010) In modern USA, one third of the entire population rate JFK as one of the great President of the country; three-fourth ranked him as above average. Many historians also considered the tenure of his leadership as the starting of modern style of president ship. In a broader view there were three main areas in the US politics where HFK and his policies have maximum impact. These were Increasing hope on implementation of civil rights and Echoes of Vietnam and Beginning of the style Modern presidency in the United States. (Page, 2010) As president, Kennedy didnt able to stand up to the expectations of civil rights leaders all the time , but his way of taking both civil activist and white group together was a great move to control the protest and fights that was going on in the country in 1960s. As a matter of fact Kennedy was moved few steps ahead of his predecessors regarding his policies and implementation of those to ensure equal civil rights for all. Page in his report has also mentioned that “Kennedy became the first president to call on all Americans to embrace civil rights as a moral imperative and the initiative was the first of its kind after Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation almost a century ago. (Page, 2010). Conclusion: On the basis of above analysis it is very clear that JFK was the main person behind the successful implementation of the civil rights in the United States. At the beginning he was slow to implement the demand of civil rights activists in the country but later on when the situation was going beyond control Kennedy was forced to take action. Although he was not alive to see the successful implementation of the law associated with the civil rights but till today he is considered as one of the most influential president of the USA. Historian ranked him as the 6th most influential President of the country who did not serve more than one term as president of the United States. References Constitutional Rights Foundation. The Civil Rights Acts of 1964. 2014, Web. available at http://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/the-civil-rights-act-of-1964 accessed on 2.6.2014 Cooper, Caroline & Khan, Azmat. JFK: Civil rights leader or bystander? Al Jazeera-America: Flagship Blog. Web, available at http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/america-tonight-blog/2013/11/25/jfk-civil-rightsleaderorbystander.html accessed on 2.6.2014 Dallek, Robert. John F Kennedy: His Cautious Path to Civil Rights. Time. 2007; Web; available at http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1635958_1635999_1634940-1,00.html accessed on 2.6.2014 Page, Susan. 50 years after win, Kennedy’s Legacy Endures. USA Today. Available at http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-09-26-jfk-kennedy-mystique_N.htm?csp=34news# accessed on 2.6.2014 Walsh T. Kenneth. JFK Embraced the Civil Rights Movement. US News. 2013; available at http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/ken-walshs-washington/2013/11/18/jfk-embraced-the-civil-rights-movement# accessed on 2.6.2014 Read More