Kennedy, newly becoming president, saw civil rights as a critical issue and supported African Americans and their fight for equality. Yet, he was reluctant to act until a monumental event happened the next year: the Freedom Rides. In 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), led by James Farmer, organized integrated Freedom Rides to defy segregation in interstate transportation. However, the participants in the Freedom Rides experienced enormous danger, pushing Kennedy to send U.S. Marshals to protect the freedom riders and to become involved completely with the movement. Through civil disobedience displayed within the Freedom Rides, the federal government began to respond to ending the racial prejudice and violence within the south. Yet, in 1963, after the publishing of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, did individuals truly begin to understand that non-violent protests and civil disobedience have an effect on public policy through being a form of political
Kennedy, newly becoming president, saw civil rights as a critical issue and supported African Americans and their fight for equality. Yet, he was reluctant to act until a monumental event happened the next year: the Freedom Rides. In 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), led by James Farmer, organized integrated Freedom Rides to defy segregation in interstate transportation. However, the participants in the Freedom Rides experienced enormous danger, pushing Kennedy to send U.S. Marshals to protect the freedom riders and to become involved completely with the movement. Through civil disobedience displayed within the Freedom Rides, the federal government began to respond to ending the racial prejudice and violence within the south. Yet, in 1963, after the publishing of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, did individuals truly begin to understand that non-violent protests and civil disobedience have an effect on public policy through being a form of political