John F. Kennedy Observance
“The issue is not northern or southern or eastern or western but a national problem, a national challenge. The cause of equality is just and we should be alert, not alarmed by the Civil Rights protests sweeping the nation. The federal government does not control these demonstrators. It neither starts them nor stops them. What we can do is seek through legislation and executive action to provide peaceful remedies for the grievances which set them off to give all Americans a fair chance for an equal life.”
Paraphrased from speech by John F. Kennedy, June 1, 1963 to U.S. conference of Mayors.
