Dwight Eisenhower demonstrated the least amount of leadership when it
came to civil rights. He did appoint Earl Warren as Chief Justice and did
not support the decision and believed that changing the law could not
change the hearts of men. (Davidson 1146) He is probably remembered most
for his support of Orval Faubus in the Little Rock Central High crisis.
Eisenhower was forced to call in the National Guard to control the angry
John Kennedy appointed several African Americans to federal courts but
many of his hopes for civil rights were never achieved. After trying to
settle an integration issue at the University of Mississippi by appealing
to people, Kennedy had to send in federal troops to settle the rioting.
However, by then two individuals had been killed. Things became more
complicated with Martin Luther King defended civil disobedience. (1169)
When King announced a march on Washington, Kennedy tried to dissuade him
from it. When that proved impossible, Kennedy "made the march his own"
(1170). His support did win him favor among African Americans but at the
same time it distanced Kennedy from southern whites and other races in the
north. Kennedy was in Dallas rallying support from southerners when he was
Lyndon Johnson was the most successful when it came to legislation
concerning civil rights. He was responsible for passing the Civil Right's
Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination in public places. This bill
has been noted as one of the greatest moments in the history of American
reform. (1171). In 1965, he sent the National Guard to protect a group of
demonstrators who were gathered to walk from Selena to Montgomery, Alabama
with Martin Luther King. In addition, the Voting Rights Act was passed in
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