Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Kennedy's election campaign of 1963



Although John F. Kennedy's claim to fame was handling the Cuban Missile Crisis, John Kennedy played a big roll in the civil rights movement. Although Kennedy was exposed to low live bigotry when the Kennedys' first moved to Boston, New York, he did not seem to show that towards African Americans after experiencing a little of what they had. Kennedy had voted against Eisenhower's Civil Rights Act in 1957. Kennedy was one for so called " Political Realism". Kennedy had at that time taken a leadership role in the means of opposition of the bill proposal. This did not seem to hurt his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election to be held in 1960. However, once nominated for the democratic presidential politcal party Kennedy had seem to switch sides and back Civil Rights. Some say that Kennedy back the opposition in the first place due to pressure from a political standpoint. It is still unclear as to if Kennedy was actually "Converted". Kennedy had Shown Martin Luther King JR. sympathy while he had spent his time in jail. Once elected Kennedy chose to do nothing towards ending the segregation of black and did not choose to back the Civil Rights movement. Instead, Kennedy chose a different approach to Improve healthcare and support the lower wages families. Although he seemed to help the less fortunate, it seemed he did what he could to prevent blacks from all angles.

4 comments:

  1. Unfortunately most laws in this land are made or ignored due to money and political pressure. I am sure J.F.K. wanted to pass laws on civil rights instead of having his country torn apart, but whether or not he was pressured into inaction we will never know.

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  2. This is just proof that everything politicians say on TV is meaningless. As JFK used supporting the civil rights movement to win black votes, Obama used ending the war to win votes today.

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  3. He should have been more supportive of the Civil Rights movement like his younger brother.

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  4. Really shows how politics really is. People in politics only care about themselves and getting re-elected. It is challenging to trust a politician for this reason. They are in it for themselves not for the others. If more politicians cared about everyone else instead of their political agenda we would live in a better world!

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