Entry for 4/30/2008 at 5:03:56 AM

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 3:03 PM

Kennedy entered the political arena at a time of great unrest. The United States was in a state of turmoil, tor n by racial and civil injustice. In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to forfeit her seat to a white man on a public bus, setting into motion the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which brought national attention to the growing problem of racial segregation. The boycott was led by Martin Luther King Jr., who became the icon of the civil rights movement. Also, that same year, African-American teenager Emmett Till was killed for whistling at a white woman. This tragedy illustrated the intense prejudice still felt by many white extremists at the time. Five years later, in 1960, peaceful protests, such as sit-ins, began. Sit-ins were a form of protest where both African-Americans and their white supporters refused to leave establishments that only served white patrons. Their actions were met with violence and ridicule, like most of the protests, but they did not back down from their cause. Neither did Kennedy during his presidency, whose support of the civil rights movement was met with both praise and opposition.
While Kennedy sustained a loss of support from more conservative voters, he gained something that was indeed the key to his success: the African-American vote. When Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) was arrested for leading a civil rights protest in Georgia, Kennedy secured his prison release. Consequently, this earned him the backing of Martin Luther King Sr., father of MLK, and thus the black vote, supplying him the winning margin in five Northern states. Kennedy’s radical ideas did not only pertain to civil rights. His policies regarding Cuba were equally controversial.

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