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Abstract: John F. Kennedy raised civil rights expectations during the course of his 1960 presidential campaign. My examination of the public comments-remarks/speeches/ statements/ question & answer sessions/personal interviews/debate points-that he made during the campaign indicates why civil rights hopes were high when he entered the White House. It also reveals that his view of civil rights was more developed at that time than is often believed. Thus, the 1963 civil rights speeches for which he received approval and acclaim reflected less political evolution than is generally portrayed. Consequently, Kennedy's public civil rights promise stands in even starker contrast to the lost civil rights opportunity during his presidency.
Keywords: African-Americans; civil rights; Democratic Party; Dixiecrats; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Richard Nixon; 1957 Civil Rights Act; 1960 Presidential Campaign
On February 28, 1963 President John F. Kennedy delivered a special written message on civil rights to the United States Congress. Included in his statement were these now often-cited words: "The Negro baby born in America today ... has about one-half as much chance of completing high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day-one-third as much chance of completing college-one third as much chance of becoming a professional man-twice as much chance of becoming unemployed-life expectancy that is seven years less-and the prospect of earning only half as much." Detractors and supporters alike, in general agreement that he conveyed detachment from the cause of civil rights during his first two years in the White House, would now claim that JFK had made evident his conversion to the cause.
Then, some three and one-half months later, on June 11, 1963, following an orchestrated showdown earlier that day at the University of Alabama, and only hours before the assassination of Medgar Evers, the president recited the same examples in almost the exact same language in a radio and television address to the nation on civil rights that many consider the gutsiest speech of his presidency, thereby reaffirming his commitment to civil rights in the process. Significantly, however, Kennedy's 1963 remarks were not the first time that he had pointed to limited opportunities for African-American children. In fact, neither his language nor the statistics he mentioned were new. He had first spoken those...