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Kennedy opened by recounting the day’s events at the university and called on Americans to examine their consciences. He framed civil rights not chiefly as a sectional, partisan, or legal question, but as “a moral issue… as old as the scriptures and as clear as the American Constitution.” To illustrate the gap between principle and practice, he cited statistics on the disparities facing a Black child born in America: roughly half the chance of completing high school, a third the chance of completing college, twice the likelihood of unemployment, and a life expectancy seven years shorter than a white contemporary’s.
Noting that a century had passed since Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, Kennedy argued that the protests in Birmingham and elsewhere had made further delay untenable. He announced that the following week he would ask Congress to enact comprehensive legislation guaranteeing equal access to public accommodations such as hotels, restaurants, theaters, and retail stores; authorizing greater federal participation in school desegregation lawsuits; and strengthening protections for voting rights. This proposal became the foundation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Kennedy closed by stating that legislation alone could not resolve the crisis, and that the obligation extended to every community, employer, and citizen.
“This is one country. It has become one country because all of us and all the people who came here had an equal chance to develop their talents.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source• Title: Civil Rights Address
• Author: John F. Kennedy
• Type: Speech
• Publisher: n/a
• Publication time: June 11, 1963
• Publication place: The Oval Office (The White House), Washington, D.C.
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