President Johnson is Dead: Turbulent Times in the New Frontier

[Pyro]

Snapshot of the Harlem Riots, July 1964

  In his first presidential statement on the matter, John F. Kennedy appeared to make clear his feelings toward segregation and the issue of race. "Our objective is not met," he stated, "until we live in a world, and a nation, free of all prejudice." Apparently signaling a hardliner pro-civil rights agenda akin to Lyndon Johnson before him, the Bostonian-accented president voiced his intention for further action to be taken beyond the Civil Rights Act of 1963. Press Secretary Bill Moyers nonetheless remained mum on the topic, instead diverting attention to the OOA (Occupational Opportunity Act).

  From his point of rank-ascension to the dawning of summer, Kennedy did not act on his aforementioned pledge. Chiefly preoccupied with the unconscionable state of affairs abroad, the administration paid insufficient mind to the concerns of the African American population. The president dedicated no speeches, pronouncements or calls to action on behalf of the civil rights cause. In Robert Dallek's A Life in Turn, he explained, "[Kennedy] and [Chief of Staff] O'Donnell did not have an ounce of political capital to wager in Congress. Kennedy allies, Humphrey and the like, incessantly encouraged his colleagues act on the need for social and electoral protections for black Americans on the floor of the Senate to no avail. With L.B.J. out of the picture, few could hold a candle to his imperial methodology in the legislature, especially on the subject of race relations."

  Political analysts, including most notably John Andone of the Washington Post, estimated in February and March of 1964 that the hope for defining civil rights legislation and meaningful racial-policy reform died with President Johnson. Although the 1963 bill outlawed racial segregation in public facilities, the toothless nature of the law proved self-evident with no means granted to enforce this command. Operation Flicker, earnestly revving at top speed in '64 (albeit under Director Hoover's reluctant guidance), failed to decrease the number of Ku Klux Klan chapters in the South and led to the capture of a scant fifteen suspected terrorists in the preceding six months. A study published in the Chicago Tribune found that lynchings of black men now reached record numbers, with stated figures in 1963 far outpacing 1962.

  This strain on communities of color tightened with the July 16th murder of James Powell, a fifteen year-old Harlem resident, by police Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan. Confrontations between students and police officers broke out in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. When members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) demanded the scene be investigated and reviewed in a civilian report, local police barricaded the demonstration. Protesters took to the rooftops and some began throwing objects, including glass bottles and bricks, at the uninvited Tactical Police Force. According to reports on this first incident, 12 policemen and 19 civilians were injured in the ensuing exchange with one civilian dead.

  "This was a time," stated former civil rights activist Fred Davis, "when these, predominately black and brown, neighborhoods in Harlem were treated as war zones by the NYPD. Housing was segregated in all sections of the city and many of these families lived in unsuitable conditions well under the poverty line. The violence, to be clear, was a consequence of this repression by the City of New York." The riots directed press headlines through mid-July as the casualties reached the upper hundreds. Representatives of the NAACP and CORE answered accusations of external agitation with their proposed mission: to effectively coordinate collective rage into organized demonstration for the betterment of all persons. The riots ended with the arrival of August, and even though this outcry of injustice encapsulated state press for nearly a month, Officer Gilligan was cleared by the courts of any malpractice.

  Perhaps it had been due to an electorally-driven fear that outward support for civil rights may endanger Southern votes, or distraction from the issue due to Laos and Vietnam, or even a simple unwillingness to condemn the conditions faced by Harlem residents. For whichever reason it may be, the president failed to identify the Harlem Riots as an unequivocal chance to push for serious change. Kennedy issued a televised statement flatly condemning the violent riots, promptly assuring the country that a peaceful order would prevail above all else. He lent a word to segregation as the "moral issue of our time," but did not propose legislation or move against the grain whatsoever. Governor John Connally called this moment, "A flushed opportunity to advance upon the Great Society," while former Secretary J. William Fulbright remarked, "Kennedy held the line. [...] It was admirable."

Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited Promises New Outreach Program, Communal Funding Efforts
Director Cyril deGrasse Tyson: Our Children Deserve A Full Education, Our People Deserve Full Employment.
New York Journal-American, August 3rd, 1964

Atlantic City Convention Center Begins Preparations for DNC
The Star Ledger, August 17th, 1964

[Pyro]

President John F. Kennedy Delivering Speech to DNC, 1964

  For President Kennedy and his staff, the incoming nominating convention seemed a worthwhile moment to breathe in a year of exhaustive activity. Betwixt the present state of affairs in Southeast Asia and an unruly domestic front, general approval for the administration slipped by eight points in the course of six months. The Democratic National Convention appeared a guaranteed boost in party morale and a show of integrity compared to the televised teetering in the RNC. With Governor George Wallace effectively walloped from the running, Kennedy ran unopposed: the first Democrat to encounter this luxury since Franklin Roosevelt in 1936.

  From the dawning of the first day, however, it all at once became incontestable that the purported idea of a unified party lied solely in its choice of president. An overwhelming majority of Democrats rallied around a professed continuation of the Johnson-era Great Society. Those two words, "Great Society", appeared in seven separate instances within the party platform, indicating the general plan to chug along full steam ahead with this brand of governing. As the topic shifted to social policy, that is, segregation and voting rights, generational rifts re-emerged to the forefront.

  Tensions flared in the convention arena when the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a newly created integrated rival of the official state party, sent its own elected delegates to the convention. They claimed that the Mississippi delegation, it being illegally elected in a segregated procedure, did not fairly represent the citizens of the Magnolia State. To the MFDP, the sitting Mississippi delegates were Democrat "solely in name," and had no intention of voting for the Kennedy ticket come November.

  Fearing the plausible loss of the white South in the event that the situation reached a boiling point, Kennedy staff offered an arranged measure to the commission reviewing the proposal offered by the MFDP. In this half step, the credentials committee agreed behind closed doors to seat two members of the MFDP sans voting power. The negotiated deal pleased neither faction, each equally outraged at the ineptitude of the committee's compromise abilities. The Mississippi delegates bolted from the convention. MFDP members attempted to occupy the vacant seats, but were barred from doing so.

  Those within the movement for civil rights believed that the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City proved a stepping stone in highlighting their plight for justice. Highlight it did, to the extent that a fair bit of press coverage of the event came to surround the contended issue of excluding black delegates and, as such, the black electorate. John Lewis and Roy Wilkins, accompanied by several other prominent activists in the movement, led an uninterrupted vigil on the grounds outside of the convention arena for the duration of the festivities as a response to their mistreatment by the national party.

  President Kennedy was nominated by voice vote once the Democrats finalized their platform (chiefly a rehash of that of 1960). Disappointed with the direction of the DNC to this point yet eager to shift course, the incumbent approached the edge of the stage and delivered an acceptance speech drenched in optimism and ferocity. He opened with a moment of recognition of his predecessor's memory and segued to policy as, "the torch Lyndon Baines Johnson would have us carry."

  Kennedy expanded upon the party testament's vague proposals for social welfare in his brief promotion of a subsidized health program for those unable to afford treatment and spoke to the merits of VISTA as a solid base to build an end to poverty. The president assured his audience that he intended to make good on fulfilling the promise of regulated housing as well as other incomplete Johnson-era programs. To this, honing specifically in on voting rights in one significant passage, he declared, "I have pledged to dedicate the full resources of my administration to ensure all men in all fifty states respect written law. Our America stands by you. [...] It is beyond time we open the doors to the New Frontier - the frontier of the 1960s. It is in our sights and shall be our future."

  In his most publicized remarks of the night, Kennedy turned the conversation to foreign affairs. He exclaimed, "We, in this country, in this generation, are, by destiny rather than by choice, the watchmen on the walls of world freedom." Kennedy offered the perspective that at the foundation of the United States lied the progress, stability and survival of Western democracy. "Our adversaries have not abandoned their ambitions, our dangers have not diminished, our vigilance cannot be relaxed. But now we have the military, the scientific, and the economic strength to do whatever must be done for the preservation and promotion of freedom."

  The keynote received high praise, and a respectful standing ovation, across all Democratic circles. It perhaps did not incite the same level of excitement as Governor Nixon's address one month earlier, but certainly prevailed in reminding Democrats and like-minded independents that the preservation of Lyndon Johnson's legacy was at stake. With President Kennedy officially awarded the nomination, all that awaited was the election season in earnest.

Democrats Align With Kennedy
N.C. Gov Terry Sanford Named Running Mate
The Washington Post, August 27th, 1964

Kennedy Applauds Voting Rights as DNC Refuses to Seat Negro Delegates
Oakland Tribune, August 27th, 1964

[Pyro]

Nixon and Kennedy 1964 Election Posters

  Organizers for both major presidential candidates honed in on respective branding early on in the race. For John F. Kennedy, the messaging was clear. "Looking back," remarked historian J. Everett Cochran, "the image of President Kennedy commonly recalled is that of hope and promise. This may have been an underlying theme in the campaign, however his pledge to resume the popular legacy of Lyndon Johnson may be considered a great deal more consequential."

  The team slated to assist in the re-election of the president was composed of an amalgamation of both newcomer as well as veteran political aides. Those most crucial in the launch of a rejuvenated Kennedy brand included presidential advisers Clark Clifford and J. William Fulbright along with Chief of Staff Kenneth O'Donnell and Democratic strategist Robert Murphy. The Kennedy brothers, Senator Robert Kennedy and adviser Edward M. Kennedy, too assisted in the re-election campaign. These figures each worked in tandem for the shared sake of John Kennedy's 1964 endeavor.

  As he had in 1960, President Kennedy won speedy support from a younger audience who came to volunteer in droves for the campaign. The president oftentimes appeared alongside Democratic congressmen and state governors whilst on the campaign trail, but in several instances joined with celebrities to convey a more personable aura. The 'Jack Pack', a clique of Hollywood entertainers including Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, ardently supported Kennedy's re-election bid and generated several famed Billboard toppers to the '64 Campaign. Other high-profile music sensations, including Roy Orbison and the Beatles, dedicated a handful of autumn shows to the campaign.

  As far as the issues of the day were concerned, President Kennedy certainly did not shy from opening himself up to criticism. Partially as a means to rob the wind from Nixon's sails, one central theme within the presidential re-election bid had been national security. Kennedy professed that the course ahead would lead to an amicable relationship with the Soviet Union and stability in Southeast Asia. Bernd Greiner wrote, "The United States in 1964 maintained an irresolute alliance with the Diet of Saigon in South Vietnam, opting to funnel supplies and weaponry as opposed to soldiers. [...] Marines stationed in Laos numbered six hundred. Unconfirmed reports placed some dozen C.I.A. operatives throughout the region." In regards to the progress of the conflict, President Kennedy assured the American populous that, "Freedom will persevere."

  Enter Team Nixon. Composing of a tight knit band of seasoned Republican contrivers, the Richard Nixon Campaign proved a force capable of matching their opposition. Herbert Brownell and Robert Finch ran the scene, with allies such as Senator John Tower acting as auxiliary advisers. According to Finch, "We had no illusions that we faced an advantageous scenario with the election. Jack preyed on the naive optimism of the time and regularly held up Johnson's damn corpse as a martyr. We countered with intellectual realism and struck hard and fast." Although President Kennedy preferred to shift the tone of politics away from negative campaigning and to a cordial and respectable discussion, Nixon knew from prior experience that victory required a fair bit of mudslinging.

  Governor Nixon chastised, at length, the foreign policy of the Kennedy Administration. "Kennedy polled well in all categories apart from diplomacy and war abroad," stated Richard Finch. "The American people were on our side with this one, as they too recognized when a man was simply in far over his head." The Nixon team demanded answers for the supply shipments out to South Vietnam, questioning the legitimacy of the new government and its effectiveness in defending from the North Vietnamese regulars. Another common criticism of Kennedy from the Nixon troupe was the infrequency of updates on the conflict in Laos. The candidate remarked, "We ought not to depend on hearsay reporting to provide with the status of our men and boys overseas. That is the job of a president with our best interests at heart."

  Gone went the 50-State Strategy implemented by then-Vice President Nixon during the 1960 race to the Oval Office. In this particular campaigning measure, Nixon fixated on states with favorable or near-favorable prospects, namely Illinois and Pennsylvania. Finch and Brownell organized several rallies in swing to conservative-leaning districts for Senator Goldwater to speak out on behalf of the Republican nominee. He attracted immense crowds at each of these venues, often matching, or in some sparse cases surpassing, turnout at simultaneous Democratic events. Then, to appease the moderate Republican electorate, Nixon appeared with former President Eisenhower in densely populated locations like Philadelphia and New York City. These venues were just as packed with supporters as the Goldwater events.

  Eisenhower and Goldwater proved to be tremendous assets for the Nixon Campaign as he engineered this innovative coalition. Neither the liberal nor conservative end of the GOP would be cast aside in this attempt to placate the party's varied demographics. Catching wind to the vulnerability of President Kennedy on civil rights, Nixon endorsed federal tax incentives to African Americans for the creation and growth of small businesses in their existing neighborhoods. Countering the logic of the Great Society, Governor Nixon played the argument that private enterprise, not direct governmental assistance, would best serve the interests of the community. He stopped short of endorsing any sort of social legislation, likely in fear of losing support of the Goldwater-ites. There is no specific historical evidence that his endorsement of a stimulus did anything to turn heads toward the Republican ticket, but judging by the polling figures, Nixon managed to inch closer regardless.
    

Gallup Poll

     

September 1964

John F. Kennedy		56% (-4)
Richard M. Nixon		40% (+3)
Undecided		04% (+1)

Truman Calls Kennedy the 'Man of Our Time' in University Speech
Chicago Tribune, September 6th, 1964

Selma Police Arrest 300 Student Protesters at Courthouse
The New York Times, September 19th, 1964