Loss of Leaders

Kennedy, J., King, M. & Kennedy, R.

John F. Kennedy

• 1917-1963• Elected to Congress in 1946• Moved to Senate in 1952• Launched Campaign in 1960• Inaugurated in 1961• New Frontier Program:

Kennedy’s Platform

• Civil Rights Legislation• Health Care for the Elderly• Aid to Education• Urban Renewal• Expanded Military and Space

Program• Containment of Communism Abroad

Activism Abroad and at Home

• Foreign Affairs: • The Peace Corps: established in 1961• NASA Funding • Raised the Minimum Wage• Expanded Social Security Benefits• The loss of a promising leader.

JFK and Civil Rights

• Was reluctant to act:• On June 11, 1963, Kennedy went on

television to promise major legislation banning discrimination in public accommodations and empowering the Justice Department to enforce desegregation.

• Second Emancipation Proclamation• Medgar Evers, president of the

Mississippi chapter of the NAACP.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

• 1929—1968• Nobel Peace Prize: 1964• Staged a successful bus boycott in

response to the Rosa Parks incident.• 4 months later, the NAACP argued the

case in federal court, which ruled against segregated seating on municipal buses and the United States Supreme Court upheld the decision.

Civil RightsMLK, JR.

• 1960s Civil Rights Movement;

The Assassination

• November 22, 1963• Loss of a Promising Leader• His legacy?

Robert Kennedy

• 1925-1968 • Political career: managed brother’s

senate campaign.• Served in World War II• Senator Kennedy, New York (1964)• Front runner in presidential election• 1965: celebrated victory in the

California primary.

RFK

• Attorney General:• Fought for Right to Vote for Blacks• Right to attend integrated schools• Right to use public • Right to use public accommodations• Sent troops in 1962 enforce court

order admitting the first Black student. James Meredith.

Foreign Affairs

• Helped develop the Kennedy Administration's strategy to blockade Cuba instead of taking military action that could have led to nuclear war.  He then negotiated with the Soviet Union on removal of the weapons.

Loss of Leaders

• Similarities• Differences

References