Short Term Significance of John F. Kennedy in Respect to the Civil Rights Movement

John F. Kennedy was seen as one of the most predominant figures in the civil rights movement between the years 1956-67. If it wasn’t for his work in the Civil Rights Bill there would have been a lack of progress towards advancing the Bill in America. Arguably Kennedy had the largest sphere of influence out of all the Civil Rights activists yet he didn’t utilize this power until the last few years of presidency. This is supported by sources 3 and 4 which state that ‘in 1961 Kennedy did nothing to help push forward the Civil Rights issue’ and only offered ‘tepid support’ for any Civil Rights reforms in his early term. However sources 1 and 2 state that he pushed for the Civil Rights issue to be sorted whilst he was campaigning for presidency, but sought to not have too great an involvement over the politically diverse issue. Source 5, delivered 11 June 1961, where the nation is spoken to in his Civil Rights Address shows that he is a determined activist in supporting the African American community at that time. Overall I would argue that John F. Kennedy, although possibly influenced by other factors happening at that time, was still one of the main contributors to the Civil Rights movement in the years 1956-67. This short-term significance is demonstrated through his struggle of trying to get the Civil Rights bill passed through congress and made legislation.

Within John F. Kennedy’s pre-presidential years he put political realism before any beliefs or reforms, this is supported by source 4 which states that Kennedy ‘voted against Eisenhower’s 1957 Civil Rights act’. This illustrates that he wasn’t always a Civil Rights activist and that he ‘sat on the fence’ until he needed t gain votes to beat Nixon in the presidential campaign. This is further supported by Source 2 which states he won ‘over 70% of African-American voted’ and as he only narrowly won against Nixon he needed the African-American votes to win. This shows that Kennedy wasn’t a major civil rights activist until it benefitted him, as arguably without the African American voted he would not have become president. This can be further argued that he wasn’t passionate about the movement and wouldn’t have made a good leader to the Civil Rights cause. Yet, he did have many opportunities to jump into the cause such as Eisenhower’s 1957 Civil rights bill, but Kennedy had opposed it. Kennedy only started truly getting involved in 1960 when Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed and he offered his sympathy to his wife while his brother, Robert, got King released from jail a few days later. As Kennedy and his brother secured King’s release it boosted his support from the African American community, but this was kept as quiet as possible outside of the community as JFK knew that the Civil Rights wasn’t the main concern