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February 1, 1960

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Martin Luther King, Jr. was an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement, a social movement in the United States that worked to end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans. King's contributions to this movement continue to be felt today and inspire others to combat inequality through nonviolence.

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November 8, 1960

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It was 56 years ago today that John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States in a bitter contest against the incumbent Vice President, Richard Nixon. It was one of the closest elections in American history, and some people still doubt its outcome.

The New York Times called the election for then-Senator Kennedy just before midnight on November 8, 1960. NBC News didn't call the race until 7 a.m. the following morning. All night, the newly empowered national television networks had forecast that Kennedy was leading, but in a race that was too close to call.

In 1990, the late John Chancellor recalled the chaos at times at NBC, when the network was relying on new computer technology to decide the winner.

"I think it was about 2 in the morning Eastern time when we began to think Kennedy might pull it out, and then the computer, which was very cumbersome in those days, began to say 'Kennedy wins, Kennedy wins,'" Chancellor told the Los Angeles Times.

"I found out later on it was after midnight Eastern time when the Nixon people began saying, 'It looks pretty bad,' and then the Kennedy people began to say, 'Not so bad.'"

Kennedy's rise in politics began at a young age. In 1946, he ran for the House of Representatives at the age of 29 and won. His older brother had been expected to be the family's political standard bearer, but he was killed in action during World War II.

Kennedy was elected three times to the House and two times to the U.S. Senate before becoming president in 1961, and he had more national political experience than our two most recent presidents. Health problems did keep Kennedy from attending Congress for some periods.

The race between Kennedy and Nixon had been close all fall. The candidates were tied in a late August Gallup poll, and Kennedy took a three-point lead after his historic TV debate performances. But Nixon gained momentum heading into Election Day, and he cut Kennedy's lead to one percentage point in a poll taken four days before the election.

Kennedy defeated Nixon when votes were finally counted in the Electoral College, by a margin of 303 to 219. But in the popular vote, Kennedy won by just 112,000 votes out of 68 million cast, or a margin on 0.2 percent.

So arguments persist to this day about vote-counting in two states, specifically Illinois (where Kennedy won by 9,000 votes) and Texas (where Kennedy won by 46,000 votes). If Nixon had won those two states, he would have defeated Kennedy by two votes in the Electoral College.

That fact wasn't lost on Nixon's supporters, who urged the candidate to contest the results. At the time, Kennedy was also leading in the critical state of California, which was Nixon's home state. But a count of absentee ballots gave Nixon the state several weeks later, after he conceded it to Kennedy.

In Illinois, there were rampant rumors that Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley used his political machine to stuff the ballot box in Cook County. Democrats charged the GOP with similar tactics in southern Illinois. Down in Texas, there were similar claims about the influence of Kennedy's running mate, Lyndon B. Johnson, over that state's election.

On Wednesday afternoon, November 9, 1960, Nixon officially conceded the election to Kennedy. He told his friend, journalist Earl Mazo, that "our country cannot afford the agony of a constitutional crisis." (Mazo had written a series of articles about voter fraud after the 1960 election, which he stopped at Nixon's request.)

In later years, Nixon also claimed in an autobiography that widespread fraud happened in Illinois and Texas during the 1960 election.

However, despite Nixon's requests and decisions to not ask for a recount, the Republican Party had other ideas. In 2000, historian David Greenberg recounted the GOP's efforts to contest the election in an article for Slate.

Greenberg said it was Mazo who helped to publicize the idea that voter fraud cost Nixon the election, and that Republican officials pursued recounts and investigations in 11 states. In the end, Nixon wound up losing the state of Hawaii to Kennedy after the recounts.

But that doesn't mean that Daley didn't affect the outcome in Illinois.

"The GOP's failure to prove fraud doesn't mean, of course, that the election was clean. That question remains unsolved and unsolvable," Greenberg said.

Another historian, Edmund Kallina, has conducted extensive research into a Chicago vote recount, and he concluded the discrepancies weren't wide enough to decide the election. In a 2010 interview, Kallina said in the long run, the close election changed politics by forcing parties to focus on the Electoral College, while fueling partisanship at the same time.
Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.

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The drama behind President Kennedy's 1960 election win

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On November 8, 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States in a bitter contest against the incumbent Vice President, Richard Nixon. It was one of the closest elections in American history, and some people still doubt its outcome.

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March 1, 1961

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President John F. Kennedy's University of Michigan Speech

After a day of campaigning for the presidency, Senator John F. Kennedy arrived at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on October 14, 1960, at 2:00 a.m., to get some sleep, not to propose the establishment of an international volunteer organization. Members of the press had retired for the night, believing that nothing interesting would happen.

But 10,000 students at the university were waiting to hear the presidential candidate speak, and it was there on the steps of the Michigan Union that a bold new experiment in public service was launched. The assembled students heard the future president issue a challenge: How many of them, he asked, would be willing to serve their country and the cause of peace by living and working in the developing world?

The reaction was both swift and enthusiastic, and since 1961, over 240,000 Americans have responded to this enduring challenge. And since then, the Peace Corps has demonstrated how the power of an idea can capture the imagination of an entire nation.

Following up on the idea he launched at the University of Michigan, President Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961. Three days later, R. Sargent Shriver became its first Director. Deployment was rapid: Volunteers began serving in five countries in 1961. In just under six years, Director Shriver developed programs in 55 countries with more than 14,500 Volunteers.

Full text of Kennedy's remarks

"I want to express my thanks to you, as a graduate of the Michigan of the East, Harvard University.

"I come here tonight delighted to have the opportunity to say one or two words about this campaign that is coming into the last three weeks.

"I think in many ways it is the most important campaign since 1933, mostly because of the problems which press upon the United States, and the opportunities which will be presented to us in the 1960s. The opportunity must be seized, through the judgment of the President, and the vigor of the executive, and the cooperation of the Congress. Through these I think we can make the greatest possible difference.

"How many of you who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world? On your willingness to do that, not merely to serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can! And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.

"Therefore, I am delighted to come to Michigan, to this university, because unless we have those resources in this school, unless you comprehend the nature of what is being asked of you, this country can't possibly move through the next 10 years in a period of relative strength.

"So I come here tonight to go to bed! But I also come here tonight to ask you to join in the effort...

"This university...this is the longest short speech I've ever made...therefore, I'll finish it! Let me say in conclusion, this University is not maintained by its alumni, or by the state, merely to help its graduates have an economic advantage in the life struggle. There is certainly a greater purpose, and I'm sure you recognize it. Therefore, I do not apologize for asking for your support in this campaign. I come here tonight asking your support for this country over the next decade.

"Thank you."

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One of the signature achievements of President John F. Kennedy was creating the Peace Corps, a new agency and a new opportunity for Americans to serve their country and their world. The creation of the Peace Corps dates back to an unexpected moment and impromptu speech more than 55 years ago.

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September 12, 1962

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Famous Speeches: John F. Kennedy's "We Choose to go to the Moon"

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June 10. 1963

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Equal Pay Act of 1963 (U.S. National Park Service)

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September 29, 1962

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James Meredith at Ole Miss - Black History - HISTORY.com

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Find out more about the history of James Meredith at Ole Miss, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

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November 22, 1963

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Table of Contents

1. Lee Harvey Oswald's Earlier Life

2. President and Governor Shot in Motorcade

3. Lyndon B. Johnson Sworn In

4. Lee Harvey Oswald Shot

5. JFK Funeral

6. Investigation Ends, Conspiracy Theories Begin

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. while riding in a motorcade in Dallas during a campaign visit. Shots rang out as Kennedy's motorcade turned past the Texas School Book Depository at Dealey Plaza, with crowds lining the streets. The driver of the president's Lincoln limousine, with its top off, raced to nearby Parkland Memorial Hospital, but after being shot in the neck and head, Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1 p.m. He was 46 years old. A generation of Americans would forever remember where they were when they heard about the president's assassination, as it would have a profound political and cultural impact on the nation.

By 2:15 p.m., Lee Harvey Oswald, a new employee at the Book Depository, was arrested for JFK's assassination, as well as for the fatal 1:15 p.m. shooting of Dallas patrolman J.D. Tippit. Two days later, on Nov. 24, Oswald would be murdered by local nightclub owner and police informant Jack Ruby at point-blank range and on live TV.

Lee Harvey Oswald's Earlier Life

Oswald was born in New Orleans in 1939. His father died of a heart attack two months before he was born. After living off and on in orphanages as a boy, he moved with his mother to New York at age 12, where he was sent to a youth detention center for truancy. It was during this time that he became interested in socialism. After moving back to New Orleans, Oswald joined the Marines in 1956, where he earned a sharpshooter qualification, and discovered Marxism.

Upon receiving an early honorable discharge from the Marines in 1959, he defected to the Soviet Union for two and a half years, where he was denied citizenship, but allowed to stay in the country-and was monitored by the KGB. Upon learning that Oswald had wanted to defect, the Marines downgraded his 1959 discharge from "honorable" to "undesirable" in 1962. Later that year, Oswald returned to Texas with his Soviet wife and young daughter.

Kennedy

Watch the three-episode documentary event, Kennedy. Available to stream now.

One year later, Oswald would purchase, by mail, a rifle with telescopic sight and a .38 revolver. That year, he attempted to shoot retired United States Major General Edwin A. Walker who had been a staunch critic of communism. Later in 1963, Oswald was denied passage to Cuba and the U.S.S.R. during a trip to Mexico City. He returned to Texas and started a job at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas.

In an interview with " Frontline," investigative journalist Gerald Posner said Oswald's hatred wasn't for Kennedy. "What he did hate was the system and what Kennedy stood for," Posner tells the PBS show. "He despised America. He despised capitalism. When he eventually had the opportunity to strike against Kennedy, it was that symbol of the system that he was going after."

President and Governor Shot in Motorcade

According to the official investigation, Oswald acted alone, firing three bullets from a sixth-floor window at the southeast corner of the Book Depository. Kennedy was struck once in the upper back and once in the head and slumped over onto his wife, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Texas Governor John B. Connally Jr., who was also in the limo with his wife, was shot once in the back. He later recovered from his injuries. After killing Tippit, Oswald was arrested a few minutes later in the back of a movie theater.

"The man is 24-year-old Lee Oswald, espouser of leftist causes, an active member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, an avowed admirer of Russia and of Cuba's Fidel Castro, a man who once lived in Russia," Dan Rather reported on CBS News at the time.

During his interrogation, Oswald denied any guilt. "I didn't shoot anybody, no sir ... I'm just a patsy," he told reporters.

Lyndon B. Johnson Sworn In

The first lady and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had been three cars behind Kennedy in the motorcade, returned to Air Force One at Dallas Love Field with Kennedy's body, in a bronze casket.

Johnson was sworn in at 2:38 p.m. as the 36th president of the United States while aboard the airplane prior to takeoff. Jacqueline Kennedy, still in a pink suit splattered with blood, stood at Johnson's side. An autopsy on Kennedy's body was performed at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

"This is a sad time for all people. We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed," Johnson said in his first public statement as president. "For me, it is a deep personal tragedy. I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear. I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help-and God's,"

On November 23, 1963, Johnson declared November 25 a national day of mourning.

Lee Harvey Oswald Shot

On Sunday morning, November 24, in front of the press, Oswald was being led to be transferred to the county jail from Dallas Police Headquarters. "The Dallas police were extremely worried for the safety of their prisoner," KRLD radio reporter Bob Huffaker, who was there, told CBS News. "We knew that Oswald was the most hated suspect of the 20th century."

Ruby shot Oswald point-blank in the stomach with a small-caliber pistol. Oswald died at Parkland Hospital, where Kennedy had died two days earlier.

Ruby was indicted on November 26 and convicted of murdering Oswald and sentenced to death by electric chair. The ruling was overturned on appeal, but Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism stemming from lung cancer in 1967 before a new trial could take place.

JFK Funeral

On November 25, a horse-drawn caisson carried Kennedy's flag-draped coffin to St. Matthew's Catholic Cathedral from the Capitol Rotunda. More than 800,000 people lined Pennsylvania Avenue to watch the procession, according to the Washington Post.

"The president's caisson was drawn by four horses, including the riderless horse named Black Jack, a 'magnificent black gelding,' according to the JFK Library, which carried an empty saddle and saber," the newspaper reported. "Boots were reversed in the stirrups. 'The riderless horse,' the JFK Library explained, 'is one of the highest military honors bestowed upon the fallen.' "

Kennedy was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, following the requiem mass, with leaders from dozens of nations in attendance. Jacqueline Kennedy lit the eternal flame that has continued to flicker since JFK's death.

Investigation Ends, Conspiracy Theories Begin

The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy-known as the Warren Commission -concluded "the shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired from the sixth-floor window at the southeast corner of the Texas School Book Depository." It also said, "The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald."

Despite the official finding, many believe Oswald didn't act alone, or that other conspirators-from the world of organized crime to the CIA to Cuban exiles-are responsible for Kennedy's assassination. A 2017 poll by FiveThirtyEight, found just 33 percent of Americans believe Oswald alone killed Kennedy. Some 30,000 never-before-seen or un-redacted documents were released to the public by the National Archives in 2017 and 2018.

Sources

" November 22, 1963: Death of the President," John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

" Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? " Frontline, PBS

" The Warren Commission Report," National Archives

" The day John F. Kennedy was killed: How America mourned a fallen president," The Washington Post

" Accused JFK assassin is arrested, then gunned down," CBS News

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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Assassination of John F. Kennedy - Facts, Investigation, Photos | HISTORY

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Facts about President John. F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963-and the investigation and conspiracy theories that followed.

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President Lyndon B. Johnson Declares War on Poverty

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President Lyndon B. Johnson Declares War on Poverty

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January 8, 1964

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Applying Lessons Learned to the Challenges and Opportunities Facing a 21st-Century America

Posted on

Endnotes and citations are available in the PDF and Scribd versions.

This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. ... It will not be a short or easy struggle, no single weapon or strategy will suffice, but we shall not rest until that war is won. The richest nation on earth can afford to win it. We cannot afford to lose it.

- President Lyndon B. Johnson, January 8, 1964

Fifty years have passed since President Johnson first declared a War on Poverty in his 1964 State of the Union address. While many of the programs that emerged from this national commitment are now taken for granted, the nation would be unrecognizable to most Americans if they had never been enacted.

Soon after President Johnson declared his commitment to end poverty, Congress passed the bipartisan Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and critical civil rights legislation, which created the legislative framework to expand economic opportunity through anti-poverty, health, education, and employment policies. Throughout the Johnson and Nixon administrations, the War on Poverty-and the Great Society more broadly-laid the foundation for our modern-day safety net, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps; Medicare; Medicaid; Head Start; and expanded Social Security.

These and other programs with roots in the War on Poverty have kept millions of families out of poverty, made college education more accessible, and put the American Dream within reach for those living on society's margins. Our national poverty rate fell 42 percent during the War on Poverty, from 1964 to 1973. And that trend continues today: The poverty rate fell from 26 percent in 1967 to 16 percent in 2012 when safety net programs are taken into account.

As poverty persists across the country, however, critics of our safety net programs might say we lost the fight. But to label the War on Poverty a failure is to say that the creation of Medicare and Head Start, enactment of civil rights legislation, and investments in education that have enabled millions of students to go to college are a failure. In fact, without the safety net, much of which has its roots in the War on Poverty, poverty rates today would be nearly double what they currently are.

The War on Poverty has not failed us, but our economy has.

Our economy and social fabric have changed significantly in the past 50 years. Demographic shifts, rising income inequality, and insufficient access to jobs and education pose new policy challenges. Too often, our public policies have not met the needs posed by these trends.

It is time for a renewed national commitment to reduce poverty. Half in Ten, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the Coalition on Human Needs, and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, believes we must set and work toward a national goal of cutting poverty in half in 10 years. To get there, we need an investment agenda that addresses the needs of 21st-century America and the demands of a global economy. It is time to raise the minimum wage, close the gender pay gap, and create better-quality jobs. It is time to invest in work and income supports that cut poverty and expand economic opportunity, and learn from local initiatives that work at the cutting edge of poverty reduction.

By creating a strong economy where gains are more equitably shared and committing to programs and policies that work, we can cut poverty in half in the next 10 years and usher in a new era of shared economic prosperity.

Defining poverty

When discussing poverty in the United States, policymakers often refer to two major measurements:

Federal poverty level

The official poverty definition uses income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to determine who is in poverty. If a family's total income is less than the applicable threshold, then that family and every individual in it is considered to be in poverty. The measure is intended for use as a yardstick, not a complete description of what people and families need to live. The official poverty definition uses income before taxes and does not include capital gains or noncash benefits such as public housing, Medicaid, and SNAP benefits. The poverty line was originally equal to nearly 50 percent of median income in the 1960s. Because it has only been adjusted for inflation and not for increases in living standards, the poverty line has fallen to just under 30 percent of median income as of 2010.

Supplemental poverty measure

The supplemental poverty measure is a more comprehensive measure of poverty that incorporates additional items such as tax payments and work expenses in its family income estimates. It also provides crucial information on the effectiveness of work and income supports in lifting families above the poverty line. Thresholds used in the measure include data on basic necessities-food, shelter, clothing, and utilities-and are adjusted for geographic differences in the cost of housing. This measure serves as an additional indicator of economic well-being and provides a deeper understanding of economic conditions and policy effects.
Melissa Boteach is the Director of the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress and the Director of the Half in Ten Education Fund. Erik Stegman is the Manager of the Half in Ten Education Fund. Sarah Baron is a Special Assistant with the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress. Tracey Ross is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress. Katie Wright is a Policy Analyst with the Half in Ten Education Fund.
How are they different?

One major difference between these two measures is that the federal poverty level does not take into account the impact of anti-poverty policies. Families who benefit from tax measures such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, or income supports such as SNAP are seen as no better off than families who are not enrolled in these programs. This can create the false impression that poverty is intractable and will persist no matter what government does. According to a recent Columbia University study that used the supplemental poverty measure, our safety net reduced the number of Americans living in poverty from 26 percent in 1967 to 16 percent in 2012. Without these programs, the study estimates that more Americans-29 percent-would be in poverty today. It is necessary to take into account the impact that these critical programs have on individuals and families in order to establish whether or not our anti-poverty policies are working.

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The War on Poverty: Then and Now - Center for American Progress

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Applying Lessons Learned to the Challenges and Opportunities Facing a 21st-Century America Posted on Endnotes and citations are available in the PDF and Scribd versions. This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. ...

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August 6, 1965

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CommonLit | The Voting Rights Act of 1965

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The signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson was a landmark moment in the Civil Rights Movement of 1960s, which encompassed all social activism in the United States with the intent of ending racial segregation and discrimination against African-Americans.

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October 20, 1965

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April 4, 1968

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CommonLit | RFK's Speech Following the Death of MLK

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Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968), served as U.S. Attorney General from 1961 to 1964 before becoming a U.S. Senator for New York in 1964. He delivered this speech after the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. While campaigning for president two months later, Robert Kennedy was assassinated as well.

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November 5, 1968

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When Richard Nixon was elected in 1968, he declared that his goal was "to bring the American people together." The nation was divided, with turbulence in the cities and war overseas. Duri...