John F Kennedy Dbq

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was one of the most influential presidents of the modern era. Despite his short presidency, he presided over an eventful period of US history. During his presidency, he had to deal with the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War on the international front. On the domestic front, he had to deal with the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was a very difficult situation for Kennedy. He had to maneuver around the political ramifications for supporting civil rights due to the fact that he might have lost support from the South. However, near the end of his presidency, he became a vocal supporter of civil rights. Therefore, despite being hesitant at first, John F. Kennedy played

He was hesitant because he did not want to lose the support of the South in the election of 1960. However, this did not stop JFK from supporting the main leader of the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King, Jr. MLK was arrested after leading a protest in Atlanta, Georgia (“Civil Rights Movement”). After this occurred, JFK called King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, to “express his concern” while also having his brother, Robert Kennedy, orchestrate the release of MLK (“Civil Rights Movement”). This lead to Kennedy easily winning the black vote in the election of 1960 which helped him win the presidency. Afterwards, Kennedy had to focus on the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, which meant that he would not concern himself with the Civil Rights Movement. However, while those two aforementioned events occurred, the freedom rides started to occur. Freedom rides were where both blacks and whites rode on integrated buses into the South to test whether or not the new law of integrated buses would be obeyed. They were attacked and arrested almost immediately after reaching the Deep South. This lead to JFK sending 400 federal marshals to protect the freedom riders (“Civil Rights Movement”). JFK’s first year and a half as president were dominated by foreign affairs thus the Civil Rights Movement was not as important to him at the time. However, after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Civil Rights

When James Meredith wanted to enroll at the University of Mississippi in 1962, Kennedy sent the National Guard to protect Meredith while he enrolled in his classes (“Civil Rights Movement”). He then addressed the University of Mississippi students and asked of them to show that they are “men of patriotism and integrity” (Nevins 170). After this, MLK asked of JFK to end discrimination in housing (Martin). JFK did this near the end of 1962 when he “signed an Executive Order directing federal departments and agencies to take proper and legal action to prevent discrimination in the sale or lease of housing facilities…” (Nevins 170-171). Therefore, these two episodes, along with more prominent moments such as his television address to the US population in the summer of 1963 where he questioned the morality of segregation and finally became vocal with his support of civil rights, showed that Kennedy became a much more important member of the Civil Rights Movement in the latter half of his