all the talent we can get

Civil rights
was an even more difficult issue to manage in the campaign.

{the Kennedy-for-President campaign in 1960.
excerpt, An Unfinished Life / Dallek}------------

The conflict between prsesures for economic, political, and social justice for black Americans and southern determination to maintain the system of de jure and de facto segregation presented Kennedy with no good political options. He was mindful of the political advantages to himself from a large black turnout, and of the transparent moral claims to equal treatment under the law for an abused and disadvantaged minority. But he was also greatly concerned with the counterpressure from white southerners who were antagonistic to the Democratic party's advanced position on civil rights.

Virginia senator A. Willis Robertson reflected the divison in the party in a letter to Kennedy saying he would support the entire party ticket in November but refused to "endorse and support the civil rights plank that was written into our Party platform over the protests of the delegates from Virginia and other Southern States."

LBJ's vice presidential nomination had been, as intended, some solace to southerners, but not enough to counter Kennedy's aggressive commitment to civil rights.

Once again, political imperatives determined Kennedy's course of action. Liberals were already angry at Johnson's selection, and if Kennedy gave in to southern pressure on civil rights, it would mean losing their [the liberals'] support (not to mention black votes). Kennedy signaled his intentions by writing Robertson, "I understand the problem the platform presents to you," but he offered nothing more than the "hope [that] it will be possible for us to work together in the fall."

Kennedy was not happy about having to choose between the party's competing factions, but once he chose, he moved forward. When he saw civil rights advocate Harris Wofford in August, he said, "Now in five minutes, tick off the ten things a President ought to do to clean up this goddamn civil rights mess."...

Kennedy agreed to speak before several black conventions, praised peaceful sit-ins at segregated public facilities across the South, criticized Eisenhower for failing to integrate public housing "with one stroke of the pen," and sponsored a national advisory conference on civil rights. In a speech, he described civil rights as a "moral question" and promised not only to support legislation but also to take executive action "on a bold and large scale." And the more he said, the more he felt. By the close of the campaign, he had warmed to the issue and spoke with indignation about American racism.

After [Republican vice presidential candidate] Henry Cabot Lodge announced that Nixon would appoint a black to his cabinet -- which angered Nixon -- Kennedy declared on Meet the Press that jobs in government should go to the best-qualified people, regardless of race or ethnicity. But he emphasized the need to bring blacks into the higher reaches of government. "There are no Federal District Judges -- there are 200-odd of them; not a one is a Negro," he said. "We have about 26 Negroes in the entire Foreign Service of 6,000, so that particularly now with the importance of Africa, Asia and all the rest, I do believe we should make a greater effort to encourage fuller participation on all levels, of all the talent we can get -- Negro, white, of any race."

----------------- {end excerpt}
{An Unfinished Life, John F. Kennedy. 1917-1963., by Robert Dallek.
Copyright 2003, Little, Brown
and Company. Boston, New York, London}

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