John F. Kennedy Quotes About Civil Rights

• If by a "Liberal," they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties - someone who believes that we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say that I'm a "Liberal."

  John F. Kennedy

  Jobs, Believe, School

  John F. Kennedy's Address upon Accepting the Liberal Party Nomination for President, New York, New York, www.jfklibrary.org. September 14, 1960.

• I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute - where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishoners for whom to vote - where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference - and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

  John F. Kennedy

  Believe, School, Men

  Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, delivered 12 September 1960 at the Rice Hotel in Houston, TX

• We are confronted primarily with a moral issue... whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.

  John F. Kennedy

  Opportunity, Rights, Issues

  Civil Rights Address, delivered 11 June 1963

• This is one country. It has become one country because all of us and all the people who came here had an equal chance to develop their talents. We cannot say to ten percent of the population that you can't have that right; that your children cannot have the chance to develop whatever talents they have; that the only way that they are going to get their rights is to go in the street and demonstrate. I think we owe them and we owe ourselves a better country than that.

  John F. Kennedy

  Country, Children, Thinking

  Civil Rights Address, delivered 11 June 1963

• This nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened ... It ought to to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspiring, Equality, Men

  Civil Rights Address, delivered 11 June 1963

• In giving rights to others which belong to them, we give rights to ourselves and to our country

  John F. Kennedy

  Country, Rights, Giving

  Kennedy, John F. (1963). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962”, p.703, Best Books on

• There are no 'white' or 'coloured' signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.

  John F. Kennedy

  White, Battle, Foxholes

  Message to Congress on proposed civil rights bill, 19 June 1963

• The Civil Rights movement should thank God for Bull Connor. He's helped it as much as Abraham Lincoln.

  John F. Kennedy

  Rights, Thank God, Movement

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