A New Kennedy: John F. Kennedy and Civil Rights 1960-1963

In the November 1964 issue of LOOK magazine, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reflected on John Kennedy one year after his assassination. In the interview, King marveled at President Kennedy’s capacity to listen, learn and grow. He mused that “there were, in fact, two John Kennedys. One presided in the first two years under pressure of the uncertainty caused by his razor-thin margin of victory. In 1963 a new Kennedy had emerged…. He was, at his death, undergoing a transformation from a hesitant leader with unsure goals to a strong figure with deeply appealing objectives.”

Dr. Sharron Wilkins Conrad, Postdoctoral Fellow at Southern Methodist University’s Center for Presidential History, documents how African Americans—initially dubious about his commitment—were won over by the candidate’s optimism and by the symbolic steps he took to demonstrate his sincerity. For black voters, Kennedy’s transformation served as belated fulfillment of his political obligation for their help securing his narrow election victory. The assassination of the “New Kennedy” hit African Americans particularly hard, largely because black mourners believed that this new President Kennedy embodied their hopes and was killed as a result.

This presentation took place via the Museum's distance learning program on June 11, 2020. To see related films, photos, documents and oral histories from The Sixth Floor Museum's collection, visit our online collections database (http://emuseum.jfk.org).

Видео A New Kennedy: John F. Kennedy and Civil Rights 1960-1963 канала SixthFloorMuseum