JFK CALLS CIVIL RIGHTS A "MORAL ISSUE"
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On June 11, 1963, John F. Kennedy gave the first address by a President of the United States exclusively devoted to the issue of Civil Rights.
The speech, broadcast live on national radio and television, followed the failed attempt by Alabama Governor George C. Wallace to prevent the admittance of two qualified African-Americans to the University of Alabama.
The President said...
"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 represent him, who would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place."
The Blog At Dealey Plaza states...
"President Kennedy's words remain ever more striking as they eerily magnify the unresolved civil rights legacies of that decade with the issues of racial injustice we continue to face today."
JFK called civil rights a "moral issue."
According to The Blog At Dealey Plaza, the President's words...
"defined equal rights as intrinsic human rights."
SOURCES
"Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero," by Chris Matthews, Simon and Shuster, 2011.
"President Kennedy's Report to the American People on Civil Rights, June 11, 1963," The Blog At Dealey Plaza, The Sixth Floor Museum, Dallas, Texas, June 11, 2020.
