After John F. Kennedy became president in 1960 he came to one of the biggest issues in the country and started the Civil Rights Act. The act gave all African Americans voting rights and other perks of being an American citizen. You could go to school with whites, go into other white only areas, like a shopping center or convenience store and other things like that. However, before the act could be passed, John F. Kennedy was shot in the back of the head while in Texas. This act ultimately came to desegregate every white only area or building in the country.
Martin Luther King Jr. was imprisoned in Atlanta, Georgia in 1960 while doing a sit-in. He was arrested for not having a permit to protest. He was supposed to sit in jail for four months. Instead, John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy intervened. John, then a senator, called Martin’s wife and told her he was doing everything in his power to get Martin out. What he was doing was talking with officials in Georgia. After talking to them enough, he was able to get Martin Luther King Jr. out of jail and back to protesting.
On August 28, 1963 a march began, led by the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., on Washington D.C to the Lincoln Memorial. This is where Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of the most memorable speeches in the history of America. Closely after the march began, president John F. Kennedy noticed the masses beginning to march. Although he was at first very against it, he soon later noticed there were too many of them to stop, so instead of working against, he worked with. He provided the peaceful protesters with 15,000 paratroopers on standby, for riots, and 4,000 troops standing guard.
On June 15, 1961 a normal rider of the public bus was arrested simply for the color of his skin not matching the color demanded to sit in that section of the bus. This wrongfully imprisoned citizen was part of the group called the Freedom Riders, a group of African American activists. After the recent notice of numbers of people being jailed, John F. Kennedy stepped in to help. They had a mission to go to Birmingham, Alabama, so John F. Kennedy sent 600 paratroopers to help protect them. After this he was hoping that the state governors would provide protection, instead they just arrested the riders.
James Meredith wanted to go to school at Ole Miss in Mississippi, and was technically able to do so under the Supreme Court ruling where schools were to be integrated. However, he was not allowed to enter the school because the governor of Mississippi wouldn’t let him in. He used his own troops that were supplied by the U.S. government that he controlled to keep James out. John F. Kennedy saw this happening and made sure that James could go to school at Ole Miss. To help him accomplish this he sent 25 paratroopers to escort him and to protect him. It took a total of 30,000 troops outside of the campus to keep a mob from getting in. To keep them out they used tear gas and other methods, two people were killed and more than 300 were wounded.
John F. Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago. He is currently being talked about a lot in the news as everyone takes a new look back at him. CBS and TheNewYorkTimes have been talking about him. TheNewYorkTimes released an article two days ago about John F. Kennedy’s boat being sold.