Describe President Kennedy’s role in the civil rights movement of the

Describe President Kennedy’s role in the civil rights movement of the early 1960s. Explain why there was a dramatic shift in the level of his participation in 1963.

What will be an ideal response?

ANSWER
Kennedy came to the presidency with a poor civil rights record. He campaigned for African-American votes in 1960, but, because he deferred to the power of southern Democrats in Congress and because he lacked a personal commitment to full civil rights for blacks, he generally ignored the civil rights movement until 1963. The outbreak of violent confrontation forced his administration to act–he proposed the bill that became the Civil Rights Act of 1964.