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Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-JRL-01
In this interview Lewis discusses President John F. Kennedy on civil rights; Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] as Attorney General and civil rights; working on RFK’s 1968 presidential campaign; RFK’s assassination, 1968; J. Edgar Hoover and FBI investigations of the civil rights movement; discrimination, hatred, and violence; and the march from Selma to Montgomery and “Bloody Sunday,” 1965, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-07
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] and Marshall discuss the very limited proposal for voting rights legislation before the demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama; how civil rights groups did not always understand politics or how to get things through Congress; John F. Kennedy [JFK] trying to explain political difficulties to civil rights leaders; meetings on civil rights legislation and the strategy for getting the votes for a civil rights bill in both houses of Congress; RFK’s disagreements with Lyndon B. Johnson on civil rights legislation; RFK, the Justice Department, and the reapportionment cases; RFK’s meeting with James Baldwin and the subsequent attack on RFK in the press; JFK’s role in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 1963; speeches at the March on Washington; George Wallace, Alabama state troopers, and the investigation into the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, September, 1963; and JFK, James J. Delaney, and the issue of aid to church schools, among other issues.
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.
Sound recording
Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. President's Office Files.
JFKPOF-TPH-04A
Dictation Belt 4A contains two sound recordings. Item 4A.1 is a telephone conversation probably held on either September 28 or September 29, 1962, between President John F. Kennedy and Governor Ross R. Barnett of Mississippi. They discuss the University of Mississippi crisis, relevant legal obligations, and arrangements for a meeting between the Attorney General and attorney Thomas H. Watkins. The recording begins with a brief exchange between President Kennedy and [White House Operator?], followed by a delay. At times the dictation belt skips. Item 4A.2 is a telephone conversation held in September 1962 between President John F. Kennedy and Special Counsel to the President Theodore C. Sorensen. They comment on campaigning Alabama Republicans, and President Kennedy asks for thoughts on a speech about the Mississippi crisis. The recording begins in mid-conversation and ends abruptly. Machine noise follows the conversation, and then Personal Secretary Evelyn Lincoln answers the telephone.Transcript included. Each item listed above is also available individually as an excerpt derived from this full-length digitized recording. See Related Records for more information.
Textual folder
Burke Marshall Personal Papers
BMPP-027-007
Textual folder
Burke Marshall Personal Papers
BMPP-019-005
Textual folder
Burke Marshall Personal Papers
BMPP-017-004
Textual folder
Papers of John F. Kennedy. Pre-Presidential Papers. Presidential Campaign Files, 1960
JFKCAMP1960-0925-017
This folder contains memoranda, newspaper articles, and correspondence sent between Senator John F. Kennedy, members of Senator Kennedy’s staff, and Ed E. Reid, Executive Director of the Alabama League of Municipalities, concerning popular opinion of Senator Kennedy, the Senator’s various speaking engagements for state and local government conventions, and Reid’s political relationship with Alabama Governor John Patterson.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-AR6571-A
Meeting with Appalachian Governors. L-R: Governor of North Carolina, Terry Sanford; Governor of Virginia, J. Lindsay Almond, Jr.; Governor of Tennessee, Buford Ellington; Governor of Kentucky, Bert T. Combs; President John F. Kennedy; Governor of Pennsylvania, David L. Lawrence; Governor of Maryland, J. Millard Tawes; Governor of Alabama, John Patterson; Governor of West Virginia, William W. Barron. Cabinet Room, White House, Washington, D.C.