Through the Roadblock

Long before federal troops flew into Little Rock, Massachusetts' Democratic Senator John Kennedy, an undeclared but unabashed candidate for his party's presidential nomination in 1960, accepted an invitation to speak to Mississippi Young Democrats at Jackson, in the deepest of the Deep South. But ever since Arkansas' Governor Orval Faubus kicked over the Democratic civil rights applecart, Kennedy's Southern friends have been begging him to back out. Their argument: anything Kennedy would say that was faintly conciliatory to the South would be used against him in the North, yet if he spoke the Northern view he would necessarily offend his Southern supporters. Jack Kennedy disagreed: he felt that he had to live up to his speaking commitment and, further, that he had to speak out on civil rights. Last week he did both with auspicious political results.

"I Accept the Challenge." Landing in Jackson, Kennedy read the local papers -and in them, a challenge from Mississippi Republican State Chairman Wirt Yerger Jr. for him to state his views on integration and segregation. While he kept an overflow reception crowd waiting in the Roof Room of the Heidelberg Hotel, Jack Kennedy hid out in his room, lolling in a warm bath while he thought through a revised version of his speech.

That night Kennedy arose before a sellout audience, boyishly tugged at his ear, tweaked his nose, ran a finger around the inside of his shirt collar, and announced bleakly: "I am particularly happy to be here tonight." The crowd sat silent, waiting. Kennedy continued: "It will be possible for us to disagree as Democrats within our party organization." The silence grew heavier. Kennedy plunged ahead, reading the text of Republican Verger's tricky challenge. Said he: "I accept the challenge. You who have been gracious enough to invite me hererealize that we do not see eye to eye on all national issues. I have no hesitancy in telling the Republican chairman the same thing I said in my own city of Boston, that I accept the Supreme Court decision as the supreme law of the land. I know that we do not all agree on that issue, but I think most of us do agree on the necessity to uphold law and order in every part of the land."

"I'm All For Him." Kennedy paused, and for a brief, desperate moment there was more silence. Then Kennedy quickly added: "And now I challenge the Republican chairman to tell us where he stands on Eisenhower and Nixon!" The crowd came to its feet, alive, roaring and stomping its approval: Jack Kennedy had won it by his own display of courage and by turning all good Democrats against the odious Republicans. He was still a long, hard way from the Democratic nomination, but he had broken through a major roadblock.

Said one local Congressman admiringly: "I never thought I'd see anybody in Central Mississippi speak up for integration and get a standing ovation." Said a slightly tipsy young Democrat, as he pumped the hand of Roman Catholic Jack Kennedy: "You know what? All these Baptists and Methodists are going to vote for you, my Catholic friend. And I'm proud to say I'm one of them too." Said Mississippi's influential Governor James P. Coleman: "I think he is our best presidential prospect for 1960, and I am all for him."

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