The Kennedy Administration's Campaign to Restore Public
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LEE, BRIAN E., Ph.D. A Matter of National Concern: The Kennedy Administration’s Campaign to Restore Public Education to Prince Edward County, Virginia (2015) Directed by Charles C. Bolton. 462 pp. The Kennedy administration’s civil rights record requires revision. Scholars have developed a negative interpretation of that record by focusing on the most dramatic crises and a handful of poor judicial appointees. The dominant narrative, therefore, concludes that the administration reacted to civil rights crises, hesitated on advancing racial equality to protect the president’s domestic agenda from attack by southern legislators, and appointed racist federal judges. Those crises and judges do not fully represent the administration’s performance on civil rights. All matters for racial equality from that period and all of President Kennedy’s judicial appointees need to be examined to develop a comprehensive assessment of the administration’s record. “A Matter of National Concern” analyzes the Kennedy administration’s civil rights record through a case study of Prince Edward County, Virginia. This study synthesizes unpublished and, in some cases, previously unexamined manuscript collections, government documents, newspapers, periodicals, secondary sources, and oral histories. The historical record of the Kennedy administration’s performance in Prince Edward County counters the dominant narrative of President Kennedy’s civil rights record. In fact, the administration took proactive measures to arrest that county’s school crisis, risked its legislative program against southern legislators by standing up for black Prince Edwardians, and appointed moderate-to-progressive judges to the U.S. Fourth Circuit who broke down the county’s resistance to school desegregation. “A Matter of National Concern” calls for Prince Edward County, and other civil rights cases, to be included in the Kennedy administration’s civil rights record. A MATTER OF NATIONAL CONCERN: THE KENNEDY ADMINISTRATION’S CAMPAIGN TO RESTORE PUBLIC EDUCATION TO PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY, VIRGINIA by Brian E. Lee A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 2015 Approved by ______________________________ Committee Chair © 2015 Brian E. Lee To Evie, AJ, and Lexi – You inspired me to raise the bar. Now it’s your turn to raise it further, to set a new standard, to do it better and faster. ii APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation written by Brian E. Lee has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Committee Chair ________________________________ Committee Members ________________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ ____________________________ Date of Acceptance by Committee _________________________ Date of Final Oral Examination iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: A NEW FRONTIER .....................................................1 II. PROLOGUE – A DARK SPOT IN THE FREE WORLD: ROBERT F. KENNEDY’S VISIT TO PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY, VIRGINIA, MAY 11, 1964 ..................................................8 III. PART 1 .......................................................................................................44 IV. SAVE US FROM OURSELVES ................................................................49 V. PART 2 .....................................................................................................103 VI. WE WILL MOVE .....................................................................................108 VII. ARMED TRUCE ......................................................................................158 VIII. WHO’S RESPONSIBLE? .......................................................................205 IX. WE ALL HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY ...................................................241 X. TO SEE WHAT CAN BE DONE .............................................................290 XI. PART 3 .....................................................................................................361 XII. MEN OF UNQUESTIONED ABILITY ...................................................363 XIII. CONCLUSION .........................................................................................438 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 446 iv LIST OF TABLES Page Table 4.1 Committees of the 87th Congress, First Session ..............................................100 Table 9.1 President Kennedy’s Job Approval Rating ......................................................244 Table 9.2 Discussants of School Situation with Peter Muirhead, March 1963 ..................................................................................................260 Table 9.3 Informal Discussion on Educational Matters in Prince Edward County, Virginia, June 6, 1963 ...................................................................276 Table 9.4 Public Opinion of the Kennedy Administration’s Speed on Integration ...................................................................................................286 Table 9.5 Responses of Negro Parents in Prince Edward County, Virginia, in June 1963, to the Question: “How do you think the schools can be opened again?” .................................................................................289 Table 10.1 Participants of the Second Meeting to Coordinate Federal and Private Agency Planning for Prince Edward County, July 16, 1963 ..............................................................................................323 Table 10.2 1963 Farmville Demonstrations List of Arrests ............................................343 Table 12.1 Judges of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, 1951-1969 ...................369 Table 12.2 U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ School Desegregation Opinions, 1961-1966..................................................................................419 v LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 2.1 Map of Prince Edward County, Virginia ..........................................................20 Figure 2.2 Robert F. Kennedy at Longwood College ........................................................25 Figure 2.3 Main Street in Farmville ...................................................................................28 Figure 2.4 Robert F. Kennedy at Mary E. Branch Elementary School No. 2.................................................................................................32 Figure 4.1 Prince Edward County Christian Association ..................................................57 Figure 4.2 James Carter .....................................................................................................60 Figure 6.1 John F. Kennedy, February 8, 1961 ...............................................................110 Figure 6.2 Burke Marshall ...............................................................................................119 Figure 6.3 Frank D. Reeves .............................................................................................129 Figure 6.4 “On Target” ....................................................................................................148 Figure 6.5 Robert F. Kennedy, May 6, 1961 ...................................................................151 Figure 7.1 “Getting in Bobby’s Hair” ..............................................................................160 Figure 7.2 St. John Barrett ...............................................................................................167 Figure 7.3 Howard W. Smith ...........................................................................................177 Figure 7.4 Oliver Hill, Roy Wilkins, and L. Francis Griffin, May 20, 1961 ..............................................................................................190 Figure 7.5 Harrison-Godwin-Button Advertisement .......................................................199 Figure 9.1 Robert F. Kennedy, March 18, 1963 ..............................................................262 Figure 9.2 John F. Kennedy, June 11, 1963.....................................................................282 Figure 10.1 Bill vanden Heuvel .......................................................................................293 vi Figure 10.2 Billy Watkins ................................................................................................297 Figure 10.3 L. Francis Griffin ..........................................................................................309 Figure 10.4 Goodwin Douglas .........................................................................................327 Figure 10.5 State Theater .................................................................................................330 Figure 10.6 College Shoppe .............................................................................................333 Figure 10.7 Farmville Baptist Church .............................................................................336