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Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-06
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] and Marshall discuss civil rights legislation, and how it was innovative and yet inevitable; meetings between RFK and businessmen on civil rights legislation; RFK’s unintentional intimidation of the businessmen based on his history with Senate hearings on labor; attempting to put leadership in the community (North and South) to deal with the problem of segregation and other racial discrimination; hostile treatment of RFK in Alabama; working with the NAACP on school desegregation; the desegregation of the University of Alabama, and the question of if and how to bring in troops to help; and using the incident at the University of Alabama as a political stepping stone, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-05
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] and Marshall discuss how John F. Kennedy [JFK] and RFK grew increasingly more involved with and concerned about civil rights; getting Martin Luther King out of jail during JFK’s 1960 campaign; civil rights advisers during JFK’s 1960 campaign; RFK becoming Attorney General amidst the civil rights battle and the transitional period in the Department of Justice [DOJ]; how Marshall got his position in the DOJ; the struggle over school desegregation; the New Orleans school crisis of February 1961; the Freedom Riders and violence against them; sending federal marshals to Alabama; trying to find a bus driver to get the Freedom Riders out of Birmingham, Alabama; criticism of RFK’s response to the Freedom Riders; how Freedom Riders were arrested and threatened in Mississippi; African-American voting rights in the South and DOJ authority; difficulties with judges; Supreme Court appointments; the FBI and organized crime; reorganization of the DOJ; RFK’s interactions with the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover after JFK’s death; Hoover’s allegations about JFK and the Kennedy family; the alleged FBI wiretapping of officials; JFK’s opinion of Hoover; FBI press releases; connecting the civil rights movement with communism to discredit it; FBI involvement in civil rights matters; issues with the FBI as having civilian control of a police force; JFK’s communication with King and other civil rights leaders; civil rights legislation; the issue of equal employment; the Civil Rights Commission; and violence against African Americans in Birmingham in the spring of 1963, among other issues.
Photograph folder
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-1962-09-11-C
ST13, KN22
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C23798
President John F. Kennedy (at microphones, holding hat) delivers remarks to international students of the U.S. Army Ordnance Guided Missile School, following his arrival at Redstone Army Airfield, Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama; photographers observe. President Kennedy visited Redstone Arsenal as part of a two-day inspection tour of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) field installations. [Blemish in upper left corner of image is original to the negative.]
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C23673
President John F. Kennedy (at microphones, holding hat) delivers remarks to international students of the U.S. Army Ordnance Guided Missile School, following his arrival at Redstone Army Airfield, Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama; photographers stand in foreground. President Kennedy visited Redstone Arsenal as part of a two-day inspection tour of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) field installations.