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How Did Kennedy Contribute To The Civil Rights Movement

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When John F. Kennedy was president, the civil rights advocates struggled to effect change in the racially segregated South, where whites controlled state governments and denied African-American basic rights. Kennedy opposed segregation and had shown some support to the civil rights movement, but he didn’t make the civil rights movement his priority until he last couple months as commander-in-chief. He was against the civil rights, because of his interactions with blacks in his life and he didn’t think blacks were that bad they actually had a good effect on him. He was also trying to save himself and the blacks, because if he would publicly go against civil right he would fear of exposing most of the Americans racism to the international community. John F Kennedy unfolded a passion for international relationships very early as he became president, and focused on what he saw as kore pressing foreign policy issues relating to the Russia, Cuba, and the Cold War. …show more content…

Kennedy had his first experience with the challenges of a turbulent nation in May of 1961. This was when a group black and white civil rights activist called the Freedom Riders. These activist boarded buses and tried to break segregation code by going together through violently racist region in the South. In Montgomery, Alabama, the freedom riders were attacked by a white mob, after fleeing to the first Baptist church the mob followed, threatening to storm the building. Kennedy gave orders to a group of marshal’s to protect the freedom riders. Although, Kennedy wanted to protect the freedom riders, he didn’t want to take any other federal actions, he handed power over to the Alabama Governor John Patterson. Martin Luther King also wanted to take action on the freedom riders, so he asked to meet the freedom riders in Washington as a symbol of solidarity, but jack denied the requests to

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