The Power of Words

Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 280 -  The Power of Words: JFK and the Fight for Equality.   This episode continues an examination of some of the outstanding addresses given by great Americans - in this case Presidents of the United States who were deeply concerned about the United States and use their talents to affect positive change that resulted in a more perfect union - not that the United States will ever be a perfect country - but should always aspire to be sincerely concerned with the rights of all persons and making life better for all its citizens.

This episode deals with an address given by President Kennedy on the 11th of June in 1963 in Washington D.C. regarding civil rights.  And probably the best way to talk about the importance of this speech is to jump right into President’s Kennedy’s address.

Transcript

Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 280 - JFK on Civil Rights.   This episode continues an examination of some of the outstanding addresses given by great Americans - in this case Presidents of the United States who were deeply concerned about the United States and use their talents to affect positive change that resulted in a more perfect union - not that the United States will ever be a perfect country - but should always aspire to be sincerely concerned with the rights of all persons and making life better for all its citizens.

This episode deals with an address given by President Kennedy on the 11th of June in 1963 in Washington D.C. regarding civil rights.  And probably the best way to talk about the importance of this speech is to jump right into President’s Kennedy’s address.

Good evening, my fellow citizens:

This afternoon, following a series of threats and defiant statements, the presence of Alabama National Guardsmen was required on the University of Alabama to carry out the final and unequivocal order of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Alabama. That order called for the admission of two clearly qualified young Alabama residents who happened to have been born Negro. That they were admitted peacefully on the campus is due in good measure to the conduct of the students of the University of Alabama, who met their responsibilities in a constructive way.

I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

Today, we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. And when Americans are sent to Vietnam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only. It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops. It ought to to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accommodation, such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street, and it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal. It ought to to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color. In short, every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the case.

The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the State in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing a high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day, one-third as much chance of completing college, one-third as much chance of becoming a professional man, twice as much chance of becoming unemployed, about one-seventh as much chance of earning $10,000 a year, a life expectancy which is 7 years shorter, and the prospects of earning only half as much.

This is not a sectional issue. Difficulties over segregation and discrimination exist in every city, in every State of the Union, producing in many cities a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety. Nor is this a partisan issue. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics. This is not even a legal or legislative issue alone. It is better to settle these matters in the courts than on the streets, and new laws are needed at every level, but law alone cannot make men see right. We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.

The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who will represent him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?

One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.

We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes?

Now the time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise. The events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased the cries for equality that no city or State or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them. The fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city, North and South, where legal remedies are not at hand. Redress is sought in the streets, in demonstrations, parades, and protests which create tensions and threaten violence and threaten lives.

We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and a people. It cannot be met by repressive police action. It cannot be left to increased demonstrations in the streets. It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk. It is a time to act in the Congress, in your State and local legislative body and, above all, in all of our daily lives. It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this a problem of one section of the country or another, or deplore the facts that we face. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all. Those who do nothing are inviting shame, as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right, as well as reality.

Next week I shall ask the Congress of the United States to act, to make a commitment it has not fully made in this century to the proposition that race has no place in American life or law. The Federal judiciary has upheld that proposition in a series of forthright cases. The Executive Branch has adopted that proposition in the conduct of its affairs, including the employment of Federal personnel, the use of Federal facilities, and the sale of federally financed housing. But there are other necessary measures which only the Congress can provide, and they must be provided at this session. The old code of equity law under which we live commands for every wrong a remedy, but in too many communities, in too many parts of the country, wrongs are inflicted on Negro citizens and there are no remedies at law. Unless the Congress acts, their only remedy is the street.

I am, therefore, asking the Congress to enact legislation giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public -- hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments. This seems to me to be an elementary right. Its denial is an arbitrary indignity that no American in 1963 should have to endure, but many do.

I have recently met with scores of business leaders urging them to take voluntary action to end this discrimination, and I have been encouraged by their response, and in the last two weeks over 75 cities have seen progress made in desegregating these kinds of facilities. But many are unwilling to act alone, and for this reason, nationwide legislation is needed if we are to move this problem from the streets to the courts.

I'm also asking the Congress to authorize the Federal Government to participate more fully in lawsuits designed to end segregation in public education. We have succeeded in persuading many districts to desegregate voluntarily. Dozens have admitted Negroes without violence. Today, a Negro is attending a State-supported institution in every one of our 50 States, but the pace is very slow.

Too many Negro children entering segregated grade schools at the time of the Supreme Court's decision nine years ago will enter segregated high schools this fall, having suffered a loss which can never be restored. The lack of an adequate education denies the Negro a chance to get a decent job.

The orderly implementation of the Supreme Court decision, therefore, cannot be left solely to those who may not have the economic resources to carry the legal action or who may be subject to harassment.

Other features will be also requested, including greater protection for the right to vote. But legislation, I repeat, cannot solve this problem alone. It must be solved in the homes of every American in every community across our country. In this respect I wanna pay tribute to those citizens North and South who've been working in their communities to make life better for all. They are acting not out of sense of legal duty but out of a sense of human decency. Like our soldiers and sailors in all parts of the world they are meeting freedom's challenge on the firing line, and I salute them for their honor and their courage.

My fellow Americans, this is a problem which faces us all -- in every city of the North as well as the South. Today, there are Negroes unemployed, two or three times as many compared to whites, inadequate education, moving into the large cities, unable to find work, young people particularly out of work without hope, denied equal rights, denied the opportunity to eat at a restaurant or a lunch counter or go to a movie theater, denied the right to a decent education, denied almost today the right to attend a State university even though qualified. It seems to me that these are matters which concern us all, not merely Presidents or Congressmen or Governors, but every citizen of the United States.

This is one country. It has become one country because all of us and all the people who came here had an equal chance to develop their talents. We cannot say to ten percent of the population that you can't have that right; that your children cannot have the chance to develop whatever talents they have; that the only way that they are going to get their rights is to go in the street and demonstrate. I think we owe them and we owe ourselves a better country than that.

Therefore, I'm asking for your help in making it easier for us to move ahead and to provide the kind of equality of treatment which we would want ourselves; to give a chance for every child to be educated to the limit of his talents.As I've said before, not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or equal motivation, but they should have the equal right to develop their talent and their ability and their motivation, to make something of themselves.

We have a right to expect that the Negro community will be responsible, will uphold the law, but they have a right to expect that the law will be fair, that the Constitution will be color blind, as Justice Harlan said at the turn of the century.

This is what we're talking about and this is a matter which concerns this country and what it stands for, and in meeting it I ask the support of all our citizens.

President John F. Kennedy's Civil Rights Address was definitely a pivotal moment in the American civil rights movement and Kennedy's presidency. This speech marked a significant shift in the administration's approach to civil rights issues and set the stage for landmark civil rights legislation.

Kennedy framed civil rights as a moral issue, moving beyond legal and legislative arguments. He declared that the nation was "confronted primarily with a moral issue" that was "as old as the scriptures and as clear as the American Constitution".

The president emphasized that all Americans should be afforded equal rights and opportunities, regardless of their race. He posed the powerful question: "Who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place?"

Kennedy stressed that civil rights was not a sectional or partisan issue, but a national concern affecting all Americans. The speech also signaled a turning point in Kennedy's presidency, marking the administration's stronger commitment to civil rights legislation.

Kennedy announced his intention to submit comprehensive civil rights legislation to Congress, which later became the foundation for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  And it is important to remember that the address was delivered at a crucial time when racial tensions were high, and it helped shape public opinion on civil rights issues.

It could be argued that the speech had an international context - you see, Kennedy linked the civil rights struggle to America's global image and Cold War politics, noting that the U.S. could not preach freedom internationally while ignoring it domestically.

The speech is considered one of the most important civil rights addresses in American history. It transformed the political discourse on civil rights from a purely legal issue to a moral imperative. Martin Luther King Jr. praised it as "one of the most eloquent, profound, and unequivocal pleas for Justice and Freedom of all men ever made by any President”.

Kennedy's address paved the way for future civil rights legislation and marked a significant step in the federal government's commitment to racial equality. Although Kennedy did not live to see the passage of the Civil Rights Act, his speech played a crucial role in building momentum for this landmark legislation.

It is important to remember that Kennedy framed civil rights as a moral issue, not just a legal or legislative one. He emphasized that all Americans should have equal rights and opportunities regardless of race. President Kennedy also stressed that civil rights was a national issue affecting all Americans, not just a sectional or partisan concern.  Furthermore, the speech marked a significant shift in the administration's approach to civil rights and helped shape public opinion on the issue. By framing civil rights as a moral imperative, Kennedy elevated the discourse from purely legal arguments to a matter of national conscience.

The speech also signaled Kennedy's intention to submit comprehensive civil rights legislation to Congress. In the week following the address, there was vigorous legislative activity as the Justice Department worked on finalizing Kennedy's proposals. However, the bill faced significant challenges in Congress, with southern Democrats opposing it.

Many historians believe that Kennedy's address is one of the most important civil rights speeches in American history. It transformed the political discourse on civil rights from a legal issue to a moral one. The speech was particularly impactful coming just a day after Kennedy's American University speech, placing it in a broader context of significant political moments.

While President Kennedy did not live to see the passage of the Civil Rights Act, his speech played a crucial role in building momentum for this landmark legislation. The address laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by proposing such key elements as:

Authority for the Attorney General to initiate school desegregation suits

Fair employment practices

Establishment of a Community Relations Service

Federal authority to withhold funds from discriminatory programs

And after Kennedy's assassination - an event I will delve into in the following podcast episode - President Lyndon B. Johnson urged passage of the Civil Rights Act in honor of the late president, ultimately signing it into law on July 2, 19644.

Kennedy's speech transformed the civil rights issue from a purely legal matter to a moral imperative. By framing it as a moral issue "as old as the scriptures and as clear as the American Constitution," Kennedy elevated the discourse and helped many Americans understand the urgency of addressing racial inequality.

While the speech was generally well-received by civil rights supporters, it faced significant opposition from Southern states: many Southern Democrats in Congress opposed Kennedy's proposed legislation.

The speech even heightened tensions in some areas, as evidenced by the assassination of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers in Mississippi just hours after the address

But the speech also galvanized the civil rights movement, and signaled stronger federal support for civil rights initiatives.  Many civil rights leaders saw it as an opportunity to push for more comprehensive legislation.

And the movement intensified its efforts to capitalize on the momentum created by Kennedy's public stance.

It is interesting to see how the speech actually made quite a difference.

For example, Johnson used Kennedy's proposed legislation as a foundation for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And the speech helped create political momentum that Johnson leveraged to push for comprehensive civil rights legislation. Kennedy's address also marked a turning point in the relationship between the federal government and civil rights organizations: It signaled a shift from the administration's previous cautious approach to a more active engagement with civil rights issues Civil rights organizations gained a more powerful ally in their struggle, with the federal government now publicly committed to their cause The speech helped legitimize the civil rights movement in the eyes of many Americans who previously may have been skeptical or indifferent

Kennedy's address was a pivotal moment that reshaped the national conversation on civil rights and set the stage for significant legislative action in the years that followed.

In summary, it can be definitely stated that Kennedy’s civil rights speech on June 11, 1963, had significant impacts on various aspects of the civil rights movement and American politics.  For example, Kennedy’s speech had a profoundly positive effect on the morale of civil rights activists. Martin Luther King Jr. was elated by the speech, recognizing it as a major turning point. The address validated the efforts of civil rights demonstrators and their nonviolent approach. The speech signaled strong federal support for the civil rights cause, energizing activists to continue their struggle

The speech had lasting impacts on racial equality in the United States, and 

laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a landmark piece of legislation. In other words, Kennedy's framing of civil rights as a moral issue definitely shifted the national discourse on racial equality.

The speech marked the beginning of what historian Carl Bauer called a "second Reconstruction" in which all branches of the federal government worked to ensure African American rights.

At the same time, the speech significantly affected the relationship between the federal government and Southern states: It signaled a more assertive federal stance on civil rights issues. The address came after Kennedy had ordered the National Guard to integrate the University of Alabama, demonstrating federal willingness to intervene in state affairs. It likely increased tensions with Southern state governments that opposed desegregation. The speech marked a shift from Kennedy's previous cautious approach to a more active engagement with civil rights issues, potentially straining relations with Southern political leaders.

In conclusion, Kennedy's civil rights speech was a pivotal moment that reshaped the national conversation on racial equality, energized the civil rights movement, and set the stage for significant legislative action in the years that followed - another example of how words matter.

Join podcast 281 for an eloquent address by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, regarding President’s Kennedy’s assassination.

Sources include: an address given by President Kennedy on the 11th of June in 1963 in Washington D.C. regarding Civil Rights

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