8:00 - 8:14 p.m.
Address to the nation on radio and television on civil rights.
More Events
In ceremonies in the colonnade bordering the white House Flower Garden President Kennedy welcomes delegates of the American Committee on Italian Migration.
President Kennedy meets at the White House with Senate and House Republican leaders to discuss his proposed civil right bill.
President Kennedy issues Proclamation 3452 ordering the Governor of Alabama and other persons to "cease and desist" from engaging in "unlawful obstructions of justice, assemblies, conspiracies, or domestic violence…" Assistant Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach. Carrying President Kennedy's proclamation asks Governor Wallace to "step aside" from blocking the doorway of the University's auditorium and allow 2 Negro students in to register. The Governor refuses.
President Kennedy issues Executive Order 11111 placing the Alabama National Guard into Federal service. The federalized troops arrive on campus and Governor Wallace steps aside to allow the two students to register.
President Kennedy addresses the nation on radio and television on civil rights. The President asks American to reflect on the day's events and other related incidents. He says the problem of racial segregation is "not a sectional issue" confined to the South. It "exists in every city, in every state of the Union, producing in many cities a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety." He calls the problem "a moral issue." "It is time to act in the Congress, in your state and local legislative body, and above all, in all our daily lives."