governor wallace has ordered 500 alabama national guardsmen into tuscaloosa. at the moment they are under his control. it would require hardly more than the flourish of a pen to convert their status to federalized troops and place them at the disposal of president kennedy. national guard units are commanded by a governor unless they re federalized and the president becomes their commander in chief. kennedy had to make the decision of what to do next. president kennedy has done some significant things in civil rights. at the same time, i must say that president kennedy hadn t done enough, and we must remind him that we elected him.n t done enough, and we must remind him that we elected hisn t done enough, and we must remind him that we elected him. under a searing alabama sun that already has the temperature near 100 degrees, the waiting continues.
no memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor president kennedy s memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long. johnson gets that civil rights bill moving in the first few weeks after kennedy s assassination. dixiecrats led by richard russell announced a filibuster. that is, they would continue to talk and prevent the bill from coming forward for a straight up or down vote. this bill which we feel is a perversion of the american way of life and a great blow at the right of dominion over private property that has been the genesis of our greatness. lbj and his allies knew they were short. so thus began a 24/7 campaign. he bullied. he cajoled. he made deals in order to get enough senators on board.
our constitution, foundation of our republic, forbids it. the principles of our freedom forbid it. and the law i will sign tonight forbids it. senator hubert humphrey has called the civil rights bill the greatest piece of social legislation of our generation. tell somebody on my staff, be sure we get some more pens here the civil rights act of 1964 is not going to create instant brotherhood. no one pretends that. but the attorney general gets new power to bring suits against racial discrimination in voting,
i m convinced he has that understanding and now we ll have to see what his passion leads him to do. but what together we can do kennedy in his inaugural speech did not have a single mention of a domestic issue. harris wofford said all these people out there, and particularly black people who voted for you, and you ve got to give them something. what they did then was add two words talking about freedom and human rights, abroad and at home. that was the only mention. kennedy s administration is trying to keep a lid on the civil rights issue, and civil right activists are determined to push ahead. brave blacks and whites rode into the deep south together on greyhound and trailways buses to challenge segregation as freedom riders.
medal. some critics have charged that the nobel peace prize was not appropriately given this year. what is your reaction to that one? well, first i want to say that i don t think the peace prize was given to me personally, and i don t accept it as a personal honor. i think it is rather a tribute to the wise restraint of discipline and dignity of which negroes and white persons of good will have carried out the whole struggle for civil rights. by the end of 1964, dr. king is aware that the one major southern civil rights challenge that had not been dealt with in the 1964 civil rights act was voter registration. bewildering hodgepodge of