JFK's American University and Civil Rights Speeches Hold Lessons for Obama and McCain
While JFK was giving his speech on international peace, a domestic crisis was unfolding in Tuscaloosa, Ala. On May 21, a federal district judge had ordered the University of Alabama to enroll a pair of black students for the summer session. The crisis reached its peak on June 10 when JFK federalized the Alabama National Guard and ordered that the school admit the black students. Alabama Gov. George Wallace moving out of the schoolhouse doorway resolved the crisis. But JFK, who had come under heavy criticism from liberal allies for his inaction as the nation's civil rights crisis unfolded, decided that the time had come for presidential action.
JFK was skeptical of the power of rhetoric in and of itself, often citing Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I. When Owen Glendower boasts that he can "call spirits from the vasty deep," Hotspur replies: "Why so can I, or so can any man; but will they come when you do call for them?" On June 11, JFK, going against the advice of most of his aides, decided it was time. "We better give that civil rights speech tonight," he told Ted Sorensen (who decades later still marveled at the use of the word "we").
That civil rights speech did not exist at 2 p.m. when Kennedy made the comment, and Sorensen had to scramble to finish it before the president went on the air from the Oval Officeat 8 p.m. "I thought I was going to have to go off the cuff," JFK later told him. As it was, the president ad-libbed a conclusion to the speech.
"It ought to be possible," JFK said, speaking from the text Sorensen had prepared, "for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color."
"We are confronted primarily with a moral issue," he told the country. "It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution."
The question, he said, focused on whether all Americans would be treated equally under the Constitution.
"As I have said before, not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or an equal motivation," JFK said, ad-libbing a conclusion, "but they should have the equal right to develop their talent and their ability and their motivation, to make something of themselves."
The speech was widely lauded as Kennedy's finest, but he remained unmoved about the power of rhetoric. When my father, JFK aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr., later praised the speech, Kennedy noted that an economic development bill he favored had suffered a surprise legislative defeatthe next day in the House. Summoning high ideals from the vasty deep, Kennedy was saying, had had little effect on day-to-day practical politics. "But of course I had to give that speech," JFK said after a pause, "and I am glad that I did."
Over two days, Kennedy had delivered a pair of speeches that were not only among the most eloquent of his career but demonstrated an understanding of the bully pulpit: In the proper context, words can be powerful tools of presidential leadership and education. The test for a President Obama or a President McCain will be finding the balance between devaluing the power of rhetoric through overdependence or crippling his presidency through rhetorical atrophy.
Robert Schlesinger is deputy assistant managing editor, opinion, at U.S.News & World Report and author of White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters (Simon & Schuster, 2008).
Reader Comments
Alliance for Progress 1961
I would love to see a re awakening of JFK's polocies. Especially A for P as i believe sharing the wealth with developing countries would have brought lasting peace to the world. More importantely people as a whole would have been able to stay in their own countries . Unfortunately we pushed colonialism ....impoverished their lands .....went across the waters for slave labor & left nothing but hopelessness & the cocoa leaf to sell to our children....all in less than 50 yrs.
A question to Robert Schlesinger
This question is to Mr. Robert Schlesinger not related to this article, but rather about a sentence in his father's article. I thank the moderator in advance for conveying my question to Mr. Robert Schlesinger.
What does the word "tribalism" refer to in the following paragraph of his father's article "Folly's Antidote"?
Sometimes, when I am particularly depressed, I ascribe our behavior to stupidity — the stupidity of our leadership, the stupidity of our culture. Three decades ago, we suffered defeat in an unwinnable war against tribalism, the most fanatic of political emotions, fighting against a country about which we knew nothing and in which we had no vital interests. Vietnam was hopeless enough, but to repeat the same arrogant folly 30 years later in Iraq is unforgivable. The Swedish statesman Axel Oxenstierna famously said, “Behold, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed.”
Commend you for your Handling of Sorensen on C-Span tonight
I found Sorensen arrogant and snippy. Saw you struggle in surprise yet persist with class. I wish Kennedy's handling of his religious affiliation had come early to Obama. Found it very interesting that you brought up the perception of Kennedy as too lofty, forcing Sorensen to double-take on the intelligence in the American citizenry. There will never be another Kennedy, but Sorensen's accurate comparison to Obama spoke worlds of acknowledgment for the more common political assumption that you have to dumb down to speak to Americans.
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