n the first two years of his term, President John F. Kennedy made no decisive actions to assist the Civil Rights Movement. However, in 1963, protests became increasingly confrontational as Birmingham, Alabama's police commissioner, Eugene "Bull" Connor, crushed a nonviolent protest with extreme force. And in June 1963, Alabama Gov. George Wallace refused to allow two black students to enter the University of Alabama. Kennedy used the National Guard to ensure the safety of the students and proposed a Civil Rights Bill to Congress a week after he made the following televised address on June 11, 1963.

The Civil Rights Act won congressional approval in 1964 as a memorial to Kennedy.