President+Kennedy

=President Kennedy=

29/05/1917 - 22/11/1963
//John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of America and was assassinated at the age of 46.// Contribution to Civil Rights: During the time of John F. Kennedy's term, civil rights in America were at one of their most crucial stages in history. Although President Kennedy was a supporter of black rights in America he put his political aspirations before any desire to aid the civil rights movement as evident in the "1957 civil rights act" where he voted against Eisenhower in order to become the next democratic presidential candidate. Many viewed this decision to be unwise due to the lose of black support in his campaign. In order to regain the black vote JFK made sympathetic phone calls to the wife of jailed black rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. as well as make promises to improve black rights in America.

In 1960 John F. Kennedy was elected the 35th president of America. In his first year in office JFK made little attempt to alter the civil rights in America mostly because of international factors that didn't allow him to focus any attention on domestic issues. in his second year John F. Kennedy made a considerable push to increase the number of African Americans in federal government organizations. Although there was an increase in black employment in organizations like the FBI, the jobs were mostly chauffeurs or other low status and paying jobs. JFK also appointed 40 African American's to senior federal positions.

JFK had a hard time supporting black rights as the majority of the American congress was made up of southerns who were against any civil rights change. JFK had to stay in a good relationship with them in order to pass his legislation therefore any radical step forward in black rights would mean his other domestic policies would be sacrificed therefore he made little change to any legislation regarding civil rights. Because of this many African American rights activists viewed him as unsupportive of their cause.

Six years before JFK was elected president the famous case Brown vs Board of Education legal dispute took place. This case resulted in legislation stating segregation in schools was unconstitutional and no longer allowed, to be created. Many people mainly in the south of America did not support this change and refused to accept it. Two such incidents that involved black students being barred from entering schools during Kennedy's time in the white house were; the 1962 James Meredith blocked from entering the university of Mississippi incident. Kennedy responded to this by sending him an escort of 400 federal marshals to protect him while entering the university. The second incident occurred in 1963 in the university of Alabama where the governor George Wallace block the entrance of the university to stop two African American students from entering. Wallace later moved aside when Kennedy sent federal marshals to speak to him. Later that evening Kennedy gave his famous civil rights address on national television and radio and proposed what would later become the civil rights act of 1964.

Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 during a motorcade in Texas.

Reference List:
 * Unkown. "Jonh F. Kennedy." __Wikipedia__. 29 May 2009. Wikipedia. 30 May 2009 .


 * 2000-2009 historylearningsite.co.uk. "John Kennedy and Civil Rights." __History learning Site__. 27 May 2009 [].

by matt