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Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-07
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] and Marshall discuss the very limited proposal for voting rights legislation before the demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama; how civil rights groups did not always understand politics or how to get things through Congress; John F. Kennedy [JFK] trying to explain political difficulties to civil rights leaders; meetings on civil rights legislation and the strategy for getting the votes for a civil rights bill in both houses of Congress; RFK’s disagreements with Lyndon B. Johnson on civil rights legislation; RFK, the Justice Department, and the reapportionment cases; RFK’s meeting with James Baldwin and the subsequent attack on RFK in the press; JFK’s role in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 1963; speeches at the March on Washington; George Wallace, Alabama state troopers, and the investigation into the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, September, 1963; and JFK, James J. Delaney, and the issue of aid to church schools, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-LEM-03
In this interview Martin discusses helping fill government positions after John F. Kennedy [JFK] is elected President, 1960; the appointment of African American judges, including Thurgood Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; providing African American candidates for different agency positions; civil rights crises during JFK’s Administration; Lee White as the White House advisor on civil rights; the civil rights bill introduced in 1963; religious groups in the civil rights movement; the issue of “white backlash”; and working for President JFK versus working for President Lyndon B. Johnson, among other issues.
Sound recording
Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. President's Office Files.
JFKPOF-MTG-108-002
Sound recording of a meeting held on August 28, 1963, between President John F. Kennedy and Civil Rights Leaders: Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, Walter Reuther, Whitney Young, Floyd McKissick, Eugene Carson Blake, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, and other unidentified participants. Wilkins, Randolph, and the other civil rights leaders initially report to President Kennedy on the March on Washington, but then turn the conversation to the pending civil rights legislation in Congress and the need for action to ensure equality. President Kennedy reviews a head count of votes in Congress on the administration's bill and legislative strategy. Martin Luther King speaks briefly. Randolph calls for a crusade with President Kennedy as its leader. Vice President Johnson explains the realities of political power in relation to Congress--how to craft a coalition of support, pressure on business leaders, approaches to former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, etc. There is also a discussion of the right of African Americans in the military to demonstrate. At the end of the meeting, there is a coordination of statements on the completion of the meeting and President Kennedy reads the statement he intends to release. Please note that this Civil Rights Meeting recording was opened to research use in July of 1984. This sound recording has been excerpted from Tape 108, which contains additional sound recording(s) preceding and following this one. See Related Records to access Tape 108 in its entirety.