International studies, Vol. VII No. 1, 2007.
Review article
John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Civil Rights Movement
Zoran Podobnik
; Master of Political Sciences
Abstract
African-American civil rights movement, formed in 1950's achieved its major successes during Kennedy's and Johnson's governance: race segregation in the south of the USA was destroyed, and those African-Americans who were earlier forbidden, were given the right to vote. President Kennedy, regardless massive African-American support, showed at the beginning an inertion and hesitation in terms of resolving their civil rights problems. But, pressured by the events on the field, and by the huge dedication of his brother and minister of defense, Robert Kennedy, he decided to act faster and more decisive in order to resolve this issue. He was tragically stopped to do something more. President Johnson continued with Kennedy's program and "pushed" two important laws in Congress: Civil rights law in 1964 and Law on the right to vote in 1965, which presented huge steps toward social equality and African-American civil rights fulfillment.
Keywords
John Kennedy; Robert Kennedy; Lyndon Johnson; AfricanAmericans; civil rights; right to vote; segregation; protests
Hrčak ID:
290575
URI
Publication date:
15.3.2007.
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