Races: The Long March

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The torrent of Negro demands has caught many men by surprise—including the President of the U.S. and his brother, the Attorney General. The torrent has, indeed, forced them into a drastic revision of their civil rights policy.

Political Coup. The Kennedys are nothing if not political-minded—and their approach to civil rights has been essentially political. During the 1960 campaign, they asked themselves not what a Kennedy Administration could do for the Negroes, but what the Negroes could do for John F. Kennedy on Election Day. In wooing Negro voters, Jack promised that there would be "much" new civil rights legislation, that he would end discrimination in housing with a "stroke of the pen." A few weeks before Election Day, the Kennedys brought off a political coup by intervening when Martin Luther King was jailed in Atlanta for leading an anti-segregation demonstration. Bobby telephoned the judge in Atlanta in an effort to get King sprung. Whether or not the call actually swayed the judge, the Kennedys got full credit among U.S. Negroes when King was released on bail the following day.

The Kennedy campaign to gather Negro votes was spectacularly successful. By statisticians' reckonings, Nixon got more non-Negro votes than Kennedy. Kennedy's margin of victory derived from his lopsided majorities in Negro districts. Negro votes accounted for his capture of at least three close states, New Jersey, Illinois and Michigan. If Nixon had carried those states, he would have been elected President.

A Matter of Votes. But no sooner did Kennedy enter the White House than much of that brave campaign talk about civil rights went by the boards. As it happens, Massachusetts-bred Jack and Bobby Kennedy both genuinely believe in equal rights. But as it also happens, there is such a thing as practical politics—and the Kennedys figured that they would need Southern Democratic votes in Congress if the New Frontier's legislative programs were to have a chance of passage.

Thus, in his first State of the Union message, President Kennedy barely mentioned civil rights. The civil rights policy that later emerged from the President's huddles with Bobby was designed to keep Negroes on his side while avoiding deep affronts to the South.

This was a highly selective policy, concentrating on Negro voting rights. The brothers reasoned that once Negroes can cast their fair share of votes in state and local elections in the South, white politicians will be compelled to heed the Negroes' demands. "The most significant civil rights problem," Bobby kept saying, "is voting."

In Attorney General Kennedy's office is a large map of the U.S., resting on the floor against one wall. The map is studded with colored pins marking the counties in which the Justice Department has taken action to protect Negro voting rights. Bobby points out with pride that 28 pins mark places where his Justice Department has filed voting suits, while only ten pins indicate the suits filed during the Eisenhower years. He does not mention, of course, that the department's authority to protect voting rights derives largely from laws passed during the Eisenhower years of 1957 and 1960.