Tape Shows JFK Fumed Over Rights Pressures

...Birmingham had been aboil with civil rights demonstrations for weeks. Hundreds of black children had marched to protest segregation, and Police Commissioner Bull Connor ordered officers to disperse them with fire hoses and dogs.

"There's no federal law we could pass to do anything about that picture in today's Times. Well, there isn't," Kennedy snapped. "I mean, what law can you pass to do anything about police power in the community of Birmingham? There is nothing we can do."

The tape of his meeting with 20 members of Americans for Democratic Action was released by the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston to coincide with Martin Luther King Day on Monday.
...
Just over a month later, Kennedy did address the nation and announced he was sending new civil rights legislation to Congress. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed after his death.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050117/ap_on_re_us/kennedy_civil_rights

gave about Oxford, Miss.

The first one was very mild. It was a "let's calm down" and a "don't worry, we're just going to do this in increments" speech.

When things got worse, Kennedy gave a, "wait a minute, this must change, these are not our values" speech. He laid out the Democratic values on civil rights so clearly in that second speech.

... and went toe-to-toe with them. That's just what we need our Democratic leaders to do today. Don't back down from a bully -- shake your fist in his face and let 'im know how it's gonna be! :grr:

Neither was the legislative response that the '64 Act was.

It was more like exasperation followed by an appeal to people's system of values that was like lifting a veil from people's eyes.

He was saying, this is how we, as liberals, see the world, and this is the answer and this will make the world a better place for all of us.

I made a mistake I think. I couldnt' find a second speech about Oxford, Miss. But I did find this one about Alabama:

http://www.jfklibrary.org/j061163.htm

of the compassion in this man's heart and it would do this nation some good to focus on a few of them for this country has lost something ...along the way.