Civil Rights

John F Kennedy, Cuba, Russia, and Civil Rights, Review of an Unfinished Love Story
Current Events and History

John F Kennedy, Cuba, Russia, and Civil Rights, Book Review of An Unfinished Love Story

06/26/2024 Bruce Strom 5

JFK had gone over the cruel math over and over again, the math was clear, he could only win the Presidency with the electoral votes of Texas, Johnson’s home state, but without them, he would lose. Besides, he respected LBJ’s effectiveness as Senate majority leader, and his work ethic, as his office lights shone like a lonely beacon deep into the nights. Many historians rank LBJ as one of the most effective legislative leaders of the century.
But there was hesitancy within the liberal Kennedy circle of Massachusetts, there was exploratory probing by Robert Kennedy, JFK’s younger brother, who was serving as Attorney General. Would the Deep South LBJ consider instead becoming the chairman of the Democratic Party? LBJ was firm, he had been offered the Vice-Presidency, and he would not quietly back down. As our authors recall: “Mistrust, suspicion, and a scarcely concealed hatred continued between these two men from that day forward.” […]

NAACP Attorneys Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston Challenge Jim Crow in the Courts
Civil Rights

NAACP Attorneys Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston Challenge Jim Crow in the Courts

02/14/2024 Bruce Strom 2

Chief Justice Fred Vinson scheduled oral arguments for December 1952, but the justices were hopelessly fractured, Vinson did not want to abandon Plessy. A second round of oral arguments were scheduled for December 1953, but Chief Justice Fred Vinson died of a heart attack in September. After attending his funeral, Justice Felix Frankfurter quipped to a friend, “This is the first indication I have ever had that there is a god.”
President Eisenhower appointed long-time Republican Earl Warren as Chief Justice, he later said this was his life’s “biggest damn fool mistake.” Earl Warren convinced his fellow justices that this needed to be a unanimous decision. Warren said this, summarizing the court’s opinion, “Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other tangible factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.” […]

Presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Civil Rights, Great Society, and Vietnam War
Civil Rights

Presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Civil Rights, Great Society, and Vietnam War

02/09/2024 Bruce Strom 2

Addressing Congress, LBJ proclaimed: “No memorial or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy’s memory more that the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long.” “We have talked about civil rights for one hundred years or more. It is time now to write the next chapter and write it in the books of law.”
LBJ continued, “Let us put an end to the teaching and the preaching of hate and evil and violence. Let us turn away from the fanatics of the far left and the far right, from the apostles of bitterness and bigotry, from those defiant of law and those who pour venom into our nation’s bloodstream.” […]

Lyndon Baines Johnson, Youth, Schooling, and Rise to Power
Civil Rights

Lyndon Baines Johnson: Youth, Schooling, and Rise to Power

02/07/2024 Bruce Strom 3

Lyndon wrote in the school paper: “What you accomplish in life depends almost completely upon what you make yourself do.” “Perfect concentration and a great desire will bring a person success in any field of work he chooses. The very first thing one should do is to train the mind to concentrate upon the essentials and discard the frivolous and unimportant.” […]

Martin Luther King, Summary of Biography by David Levering Lewis
Civil Rights

Martin Luther King, Summary of Biography by David Levering Lewis

01/31/2024 Bruce Strom 2

Today we will reflect on the life of Martin Luther King as told by David Levering Lewis in his classic biography. Martin Luther King sincerely sought to follow Mahatma Gandhi’s example by staging nonviolent protests, even when provoked. Many local jurisdictions made protesting illegal, often hundreds of protesters were arrested. […]

Martin Luther King, LBJ, Great Society, and Vietnam, Northern Civil Rights, Lewis Biography
Civil Rights

Martin Luther King & LBJ: Great Society, Vietnam, Chicago & Memphis, Lewis Biography Chapters 10-12

01/26/2024 Bruce Strom 1

Today we will reflect on the final Civil Rights struggles and causes championed by Martin Luther King before his untimely assassination in Memphis. We wonder: How did John F Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson differ in their support for civil rights for blacks? Why were the Civil Rights struggles in New […]

Martin Luther King, Bloody Struggles in Mississippi and Selma, Lewis’ Biography
Civil Rights

Martin Luther King, Bloody Struggles in Mississippi and Selma, Lewis’ Biography Chapters 8-9

01/24/2024 Bruce Strom 2

After the Selma march, Martin Luther King delivered another rousing speech. “They told us we wouldn’t get here. And there were those who said we would only get her over their dead bodies, but all the world together knows that we are here and that we are standing” in “Alabama saying, ‘Ain’t goin’ let nobody turn us around.’” “Our whole campaign in Alabama has been centered around the right to vote.” “The threat of the free exercise of the ballot by the Negro and white masses alike resulted in establishing a segregated society. They segregated Southern money from the poor whites; they segregated Southern churches from Christianity; they segregated Southern minds from honest thinking, and they segregated the Negro from everything.” […]

Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream Speech, March on Washington DC, Biography
Civil Rights

Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream Speech, March on Washington DC, Biography Chapter 8

01/19/2024 Bruce Strom 4

MLK’s I Have a Dream Speech begins: “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.” […]

Martin Luther King, Birmingham, Nonviolent Protests v Bombs and Brutality
Civil Rights

Martin Luther King, Birmingham, Nonviolent Protests v Bombs and Brutality, Biography Chapter 7

01/17/2024 Bruce Strom 2

In September 1963, a black church in Birmingham was dynamited, killing four young girls and injuring several dozen others. Addressing the nation on television, President Kennedy proclaimed, “This nation is committed to a course of domestic justice and tranquility.” “If these cruel and tragic events can awaken that city and state, if they can awaken this entire nation,” “then it is not too late for all concerned to unite in steps toward peaceful progress before more lives are lost.” But no whites attended the funeral services of these four young black girls. […]

Martin Luther King, Lunch Counters, Freedom Riders, and Albany, Lewis’ Biography
Civil Rights

Martin Luther King, Lunch Counters, Freedom Riders, and Albany, Lewis’ Biography Chapters 4-6

01/15/2024 Bruce Strom 2

Martin Luther King was vigorously campaigning for voting rights. In his first national address, he proclaimed, “Give us the ballot. Give us the ballot and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights.” “Give us the ballot and we will fill the legislature with men of goodwill. Give us the ballot and we will get the people judges who love mercy. Give us the ballot and we will quietly, lawfully, and nonviolently, without rancor or bitterness, implement” the US Supreme Court Brown decision. Ensuring that blacks have the right to vote was the key civil rights objective in the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War. […]