began so long ago and that the two men—divided by a century of racial injustice—are forever linked in history from this day forward.
“‘Free at last, free at last,’” he quotes from a Negro spiritual, “‘thank God almighty, we are free at last.’”
As the crowd on the Mall erupts in applause, knowing they have just seen and heard a profound moment in their nation’s history, John Kennedy turns to Bobby and passes judgment on what he has just seen.
“He’s damned good.”
One hour later, an exultant Martin Luther King Jr. meets with John Kennedy in the Oval Office. There are eleven other people in attendance, including Lyndon Johnson, so this visit is not a summit meeting between the president of the United States and the most powerful man in the civil rights movement. But Kennedy makes sure King knows he’s been paying attention to the day’s events.
“I have a dream,” he tells King, adding a nod of the head to show approval—and that his fears about King have been temporarily set aside.
But the March on Washington does not change the ongoing racial battle in the American South. At 10:22 A.M. on September 15, 1963, less than three weeks after America listened to Martin Luther King Jr. dream about black boys and girls in Alabama joining hands with white boys and girls, twenty-six black children are led into the basement of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church for Sunday morning services. They are due to hear a children’s sermon on “The Love That Forgives.”
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is the same congregation that launched the Children’s Crusade on Birmingham in May 1963. It stands just across from the park where Bull Connor’s police dogs bit into the flesh of innocent black teenagers and elementary school students and has earned a special level of hatred from the white supremacist groups that still battle to block the integration of Birmingham.
The children attending church this Sunday morning cannot possibly know that four members of the Ku Klux Klan have planted a box of dynamite near the basement. So the explosion that shatters the spiritual calm of the church service is completely unexpected. The force of the blast is so great that it doesn’t just destroy the basement, but also blows out the back wall of the church and destroys every stained-glass window in the building —all but one. That lone surviving window portrays an image of Jesus Christ ministering to a group of small children.
The window is symbolic in a sense, because almost all of the children in the basement this Sunday morning survive the horrific tragedy. However, four of them—Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Denise McNair—do not.
Their dream has come to an end.
15
SEPTEMBER 2, 1963
HYANNIS PORT, MASSACHUSETTS
NOON
“Oh, God,” reads a small plaque given to the president, “thy sea is so great and my boat is so small.”
On this Labor Day, John Kennedy sees a small boat bobbing in the distance as he removes his American Optical Saratoga sunglasses and eases himself into a wicker chair on the grass of Brambletyde’s beachfront yard. Sitting directly across from the president, CBS journalist Walter Cronkite does the same, preparing for one of the biggest TV interviews of his life. Today the subject is the rough waters and turbulent swells being navigated by the president of the United States. Both men wear dark suits, even as the September sun beats directly down on them. Cronkite crosses his legs, while Kennedy’s are stretched out in front of him. The wind messes up JFK’s carefully combed hair, forcing him to reach up absentmindedly every few minutes to press it back into place. The balding Cronkite has no such problem.
At forty-six, roughly the same age as Kennedy, Walter Cronkite is considered the nation’s premier television newsman. He and the president have an easy rapport, and JFK is so comfortable that he leans back in his cushioned chair during parts of the interview, just as he does when thinking over a tough problem in the Oval Office.
The two men casually banter as they are miked for sound and then sit quietly opposite each other as the final ten seconds before taping are counted down. Cronkite acknowledges an off-camera signal, and the interview begins.
The broadcaster aims his questions at JFK in a delivery that alternates between baritone rumble and easy drawl. His interviewing style is disarming and even warm, no matter how sharp his queries. As a result, Kennedy remains completely at ease. The interview sounds like a conversation between two friends well-informed about American politics. And truth be told, that isn’t far from Cronkite’s mind-set. He is a devoted Democrat, although he skillfully hides that fact from his viewing audience.
“Do you think you’ll lose some Southern states in ’64?” Cronkite asks.
“Well I lost some in ’60, so I suppose I’ll lose some in, uh, maybe more in ’64,” Kennedy smiles wistfully, forced to reveal a painful political weakness. Cronkite is letting Americans in on a secret known only to pollsters and veteran politicians. “I don’t know. It’s too early to tell, but I would think we were, I’m not sure that, uh, I’m the most popular figure in the country today in the South. But that’s all right. I think we’re going to have to wait and see a year and a half from now…”
There is now a fighting spirit in the president’s eyes. The mere talk of the next election excites him. He loves the thrill of the political battle. JFK also loves being president. He is an adrenaline junkie, relishing the rush of competing for power.
Cronkite presses the president. “What do you think the issues might be in ’64?”
“Well, of course, abroad would be the security of the United States. Our effort to maintain that security. To maintain the cause of freedom. At home I think it’s the economy. Jobs. Opportunity for all Americans.”
The president, without consulting notes, then rattles off a long list of statistics. He presses for a tax cut, to ward off a recession, he says, and backs it up with detailed financial specifics about the way in which cutting taxes would stimulate the economy.
Cronkite finally gets around to the touchy subject of Vietnam. With every passing day, Americans are becoming more concerned about U.S. involvement in that troubled nation. The ongoing and well-publicized oppression of the Buddhists has made some Americans forget that communism is the primary reason U.S. troops are in Vietnam. There are growing cries for America to leave Southeast Asia and let the Vietnamese fight their own war.
“Everyone has said the administration would apply diplomacy in Vietnam,” Cronkite begins, emphasizing the second syllable with a short letter
Cronkite has a soothing on-camera presence that television viewers have grown to trust. The president knows that convincing this newsman of his views on Vietnam is the same as convincing the voters watching at home.
“The war is going better,” JFK begins. “But that doesn’t mean that the events of the last two months aren’t very ominous. I don’t think that if greater effort isn’t made by the government, that the war can be won out there. In the final analysis, it’s their war. They’re the ones who have to win it or lose it.”
The president stops short of saying that U.S. troops should be removed, despite the fact that dozens of Americans have already been killed fighting another country’s battles. He voices his concerns that if Vietnam falls to the Communists, then so will the rest of Asia. JFK lists the countries that will topple, beginning with Thailand and continuing all the way to India. “We’re in a desperate struggle with the Communist situation,” he insists, “and I don’t want Asia to pass into the control of the Chinese.”
Kennedy’s voice intensifies, showing his disdain for both Vietnam’s president Diem and those enemies that
