The Bystander: John F. Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality

In this the first comprehensive history of Kennedys civil rights record over the course of his entire political career Nick Bryant shows that Kennedys shrewd handling of the race issue in his early congressional campaigns blinded him as President to the intractability of the simmering racial crisis in America. By focusing on mainly symbolic gestures Kennedy missed crucial opportunities to confront the obstructionist Southern bloc and to enact genuine reform his inertia emboldening white supremacists and forced black activists to adopt increasingly militant tactics.