JFK speaks on a Moral Crisis

JFKennedy that is. Kerry spoke about voter irregularities this morning at the MLK breakfast slamming the Republicans for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in Iraq to bring democracy there but left minority voters in the US waiting in line in the cold and rain because of uneven voting machine distribution.

In a release from the JFK Library in honor of Martin Luther King’s birthday Kennedy expressed his distress about the state of civil rights for minorities in the south.

"I mean what law can you pass to do anything about police power in the community of Birmingham? There is nothing we can do… The fact of the matter is that Birmingham is in worse shape than any other city in the United States, and it’s been that way for a year and a half….I think it’s terrible the picture in the paper. The fact of the matter that’s just what (Police Commissioner of Birmingham) (Bull) Connor wants. And, as I say, Birmingham is the worst city in the south. They have done nothing for the Negroes in that community, so it is an intolerable situation, that there is no argument about."

This statement was not particularly surprising given the stance Kennedy took on civil rights throughout his candidacy and presidency, but it does shed some new light on the president and how he responded to this moral issue.