“We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.”
John F. Kennedy
Civil Rights Address (Primary source)
On the evening of June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy delivered a televised and radio address to the nation on civil rights, broadcast from the Oval Office hours after Alabama Governor George Wallace yielded to federalised National Guardsmen and permitted two Black students to enroll at the University of Alabama.
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“We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“The idea that Britain loses every battle except the last has proved correct so many times in the past that the average Englishman is unwilling to make great personal sacrifices until the danger is overwhelmingly apparent.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“For, in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, ‘holds office’ every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary sourceMore quotes by John F. Kennedy →
“I will not be triumphed over.”
— Cleopatra Disputed“Do not do that which you would not have known.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“There’s an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source