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Overview
The Kennedy family has been closely associated with the civil rights movement, but it wasn’t always that way. During John F. Kennedy’s administration, he did not do enough to help African Americans; however, his legacy was still tied to their cause.
In fact, in the early years of his presidency, Kennedy appointed some racist judges to federal positions. Clearly, he was more interested in securing support for his next term than doing everything he could to help black people and promote equality. However, something important happened that summer. Robert Kennedy met with a group of black artists and intellectuals as well as an activist who had been badly beaten by police officers. As we’ll learn later on from key points in this book, at first Robert thought it was a disaster but then found that it greatly informed his political life going forward.
In this passage, Michael Eric Dyson explains that the March on Washington was powerful because it helped Robert Kennedy become more aware of injustice in the United States. He also argues that we need more meetings like this to continue making progress politically and morally. Three reasons explain why he believes this is true: (1) The march took place on a significant day in American history; (2) Toni Morrison has compared James Baldwin’s work to Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech at the march; and (3) Wakanda is a fictional land from Black Panther that represents black excellence.
Big Idea #1: The lives of Robert Kennedy and James Baldwin were quite different, but both struggled with difficult truths.
Robert F. Kennedy lived in the shadow of his older brother, John F. Kennedy, for much of his life. When JFK became president in 1960, Robert accepted a position as attorney general in the Kennedy administration and was determined to establish himself as an individual political force apart from his brother’s legacy.
Robert was short, inexperienced and accused of getting the job out of nepotism. However, this gave him opportunities to prove himself in tumultuous times around civil rights issues.
James Baldwin was a writer who became very interested in civil rights.
Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York City. It has been home to many famous black artists and intellectuals such as Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Paul Robeson and W.E.B Du Bois. Baldwin started out as a preacher at a Pentecostal church before becoming one of the nation’s most influential writers whose essays for The New Yorker were later published in book form under the title “The Fire Next Time.”
Baldwin’s writing was powerful and compelling, tackling the issues of race and religion in America. However, he was a gay man, which made him controversial among other black leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., who couldn’t fully support his voice. Kennedy had been assassinated in 1963 by that point, but it wasn’t clear how the administration would respond to segregation.
Big Idea #2: In 1963, the stage was set for a remarkable meeting to occur between Robert F. Kennedy and James Baldwin.
John F. Kennedy is known as one of the more progressive presidents, but in reality, he was not very proactive about civil rights. His brother Robert was a bit more active on that front.
In April 1963, a nonviolent protest in Birmingham led by Martin Luther King Jr. ended with men, women and children alike being blasted with fire hoses, set upon by dogs and beaten with clubs. The Kennedy administration sent mediators to help de-escalate the situation but they were met with strong rebuke from white politicians and leaders in the South.
