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Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-HGH-01
In this interview Hoffmann discusses John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] campaign for the 1960 West Virginia [WV] presidential primary; JFK’s religion as a campaign issue in WV; WV press on JFK versus Hubert H. Humphrey; Hoffmann’s interactions with JFK during the WV campaign; President JFK’s continued interest in WV; reaction to the Kennedy Administration in WV; the national press’ treatment of WV during the 1960 primary; news reports on the results of the WV primary; and JFK’s lasting impact on WV, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-TMH-01
In this interview Hesburgh discusses his contact with John F. Kennedy [JFK] before he was elected President; Harris Wofford on JFK’s staff; different members of the Commission on Civil Rights; meeting with President JFK about the Commission’s reports and recommendations; JFK versus Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson on civil rights, respectively; JFK’s political priorities as President and what that meant for civil rights issues during his Administration; tension between the Commission and the Department of Justice; JFK’s characterization of civil rights as a moral problem; and a shift in Commission reports towards the local level, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-AEH-02
In this interview Henry discusses how he first got involved in civil rights activity and how he became an active leader in the NAACP; contact with the Justice Department during the Dwight D. Eisenhower Administration; the FBI investigation into Henry and into the civil rights movement; Henry’s relationship with Medgar Evers; voting rights and voter registration campaigns; beatings and killings of activists in Mississippi; the NAACP and the 1960 presidential election; Jim Silver; Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders; labor movement leadership and the NAACP in the sixties; the relationships among the various civil rights organizations, including the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, SCLC, and SNCC; organizing boycotts of certain stores; Henry’s arrest in 1961; and the disappearance and murder of Andrew Goodman, Mickey Schwerner, and James Chaney in 1964, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-AEH-01
In this interview Henry discusses meeting John F. Kennedy [JFK] and Robert F. Kennedy; discussing Mississippi and civil rights issues with President JFK; voting rights and poll taxes; the freedom rides; the murder of three young activists in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964; Mississippi politics beginning in the late fifties; white people in Mississippi; school segregation; the 1960 presidential election; and early contact with the federal government and the Justice Department in 1961, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-WBH-01
In this interview Hartsfield discusses the 1960 presidential election; the sit-in demonstrations in Atlanta in the fall of 1960; Martin Luther King’s arrest in Atlanta; the meeting between Hartsfield and the demonstrators; the idea to have John F. Kennedy [JFK] speak out to have King released from jail; proposing this idea to the Democratic National Committee; the reaction in the national press to JFK’s supposed intervention on behalf of King; JFK’s immediate acceptance of the plan; John C. Calhoun and the Republican National Committee’s unwillingness to get Richard M. Nixon similarly involved; and other memories of JFK, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-JLA-01
Almond discusses Southern governor's attitiudes toward President Kennedy, Virginia politics, Johnson's candidacy, and civil rights, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-BIB-01
Bernhard discusses the often contentious relations between the Commission on Civil Rights, John F. Kennedy’s White House, and the Justice Department, especially after a report and recommendations that the Commission made about Mississippi, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-OB-01
Beaty discusses Arizona politics during the 1950s, the extended Udall family, and Stewart L. Udall’s service in Congress, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RB-01
Batson discusses John F. Kennedy's (JFK) senate and presidential campaigns, disappointment over JFK’s civil rights record, and the 1962 Senate race between Edward Moore Kennedy and Edward J. McCormack, Jr., among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RRB-01
Barnett discusses his conflicts with the federal government over civil rights, his opposition to integrating Mississippi schools and universities, and Mississippi’s economics during his governorship, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-BLB-01
Boutin discusses the 1960 Democratic primary in New Hampshire; the 1960 Democratic National Convention; reforms that he made in the General Service Administration in personnel practices, bidding and contracting, and implementing equal opportunity programs; the stockpile investigation; and John F. Kennedy’s involvement in planning his presidential library, among other issues.
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.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-JDD-01
De Blieux discusses John F. Kennedy’s (JFK) 1956 vice presidential bid, the Civil Rights Commission advisory council, and Louisiana’s civil rights issues during JFK’s presidency, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-LEM-03
In this interview Martin discusses helping fill government positions after John F. Kennedy [JFK] is elected President, 1960; the appointment of African American judges, including Thurgood Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; providing African American candidates for different agency positions; civil rights crises during JFK’s Administration; Lee White as the White House advisor on civil rights; the civil rights bill introduced in 1963; religious groups in the civil rights movement; the issue of “white backlash”; and working for President JFK versus working for President Lyndon B. Johnson, among other issues.
Oral history
Robert F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
RFKOH-OCC-01
Carr discusses Democratic politics in Mississippi; segregation, racism and the civil rights movement; the Justice Department’s involvement in desegregation and voter registration during the John F. Kennedy administration; and Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential run, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-REM-01
This interview focuses on Southern politics, John F. Kennedy’s views on civil rights, and the role of civil rights on the 1960 presidential campaign, among other topics.
Oral history
Robert F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
RFKOH-TMJ-03
This interview focuses on the formation of Bedford – Stuyvesant, political consequences of Bedford – Stuyvesant for Robert F. Kennedy [RFK], and RFK’s attitudes towards Bedford- Stuyvesant, among other things.