1963 February 12

President Kennedy Tries Lavish PR Move on Civil Rights – Fails

President John Kennedy attempted a lavish public relations move on civil rights on this evening, and it completely failed to persuade civil rights leaders that he was serious about civil rights legislation.

The occasion was the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, who had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The momentum of the civil rights movement was steadily increasing and Kennedy was under pressure to deliver on his campaign promises to support civil rights. By this point, early 1963, he had very little. He offered a weak voting rights bill in 1962, which was killed by a filibuster by Southern Democrats. After almost two years in office, he also signed an executive order banning race discrimination in federally subsidized new homes. He had prominently promised to sign such an order in the 1960 election campaign. In fact, however, the order covered only a small fraction of new home construction.

Kennedy thought he could win the support of top civil rights leaders by embracing the image and legacy of Abraham Lincoln (and steal him away from the Republicans) with a lavish event with 1,100 invited guests at the White House. The event did no fool the top three civil right leaders, however. Missing were A. Philip Randolph, the senior and deeply respected rights leader, Clarence Mitchell, chief lobbyist in Washington for the NAACP, and finally Dr. Martin Luther King, who was establishing himself as the national civil rights leader.

In fact, the Kennedy administration had other priorities that civil rights: foreign policy, tax cuts, urban renewal, and space exploration.

Not only did the PR event fail to convince civil rights leaders, but the civil rights movement took a dramatic and explosive turn two months later. Martin Luther King launched a major campaign to end segregation in Birmingham on April 3, 1963. He was arrested at one point and while in jail wrote his famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail” on April 12, 1963. And on May 3, 1963 the Birmingham police attacked civil rights demonstrators with fire hoses and police dogs. Newsreel footage of this event shocked the nation and people around the world. Sympathy demonstrations began in other cities around the country.

President Kennedy and key members of his administration realized that a national crisis had developed. In response, on June 11, 1963 he gave a speech on national television proposing a strong civil rights bill. After Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, and with the strong leadership of President Lyndon Johnson, that bill became the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Read about the February 12th event: Clay Risen, The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act (2014)

Read a critical view of Kennedy and civil rights: Nick Bryant, The Bystander: John F. Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality (2006)

Learn more: Hugh Davis Graham, The Civil Rights Era: Origins and Development of National Policy, 1960 – 1972 (1990)