Close
Not finding the information you're looking for? Please contact the Archives research staff.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-LHH-01
In this interview Hodges discusses the 1956 and 1960 Democratic National Conventions; the 1960 National Governors’ Conference; John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] 1960 presidential campaign; the Department of Commerce, including reorganization, agencies within the Department, and relations with other groups; establishing the U.S. Travel Service; the Business Advisory Council; businessmen and government; the economic recession in 1960–1961; the Area Redevelopment Act; the 1962 rise in steel prices; balance of payments; and trips abroad, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-09
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] discusses John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] decision to enter politics right after WWII; JFK’s campaign for the House of Representatives and Kennedy family and supporters’ roles in it; JFK as a campaigner, strengths and weaknesses; traveling around the world with JFK in 1951 and meeting foreign leaders; JFK’s interest in foreign affairs while in Congress; JFK’s 1952 Senate campaign; the Massachusetts Democratic Party; Adlai E. Stevenson; Paul A. Dever; the tea parties for JFK’s campaigns; the organization of JFK’s 1952 campaign; and the 1956 Democratic National Convention and the question of the vice-presidential nomination, 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-RFK-03
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] discusses the 1962 steel crisis; some major issues and accomplishments of John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] presidency; choosing the U.S. Ambassador to Russia; foreign aid and treaties; the military coup in Peru; the space race during the Kennedy Administration; the 1962 congressional and gubernatorial campaigns; JFK’s dinner for the Nobel Prize winners; the Polaris submarines; problems with the New York Herald Tribune; New York politics; various pieces of federal legislation, 1961–1963; the Dominican Republic; Department of Justice investigations under RFK; the difficulties of being Attorney General; congressional issues in early 1963; the Vietnam War escalation in 1963; American support of the coup in Vietnam; Henry Cabot Lodge as the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam; the prisoners from the Bay of Pigs invasion; American actions in Cuba; unemployment and civil rights; RFK’s meeting with James Baldwin; JFK’s trips to the South and speeches on civil rights; the nuclear test ban treaty; and JFK’s trip to Ireland and Rome, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-DJR-01
In this interview Roberts discusses working with John F. Kennedy [JFK] on New England issues when he was a congressman and a senator; JFK and the American textile industry; JFK and other New England governors; the significance of New England solidarity at national political conventions; Adlai E. Stevenson and the 1956 Democratic National Convention; JFK’s bid for the vice-presidential nomination at the 1956 Convention and arguments against him; Stevenson’s reaction to JFK as a vice-presidential possibility; contact with JFK and his staff after 1956; dealing with the religious issue when gathering support for JFK; meeting at Hyannis Port in October 1959; JFK’s 1960 presidential campaign; the 1960 Democratic National Convention; JFK’s reception in Rhode Island; interactions with President JFK and working with his Administration; and JFK’s political legacy, among other issues.