"While most historians accept JFK's "moderation" on civil rights as politically prudent, David Niven now argues that Kennedy failed to recognize the political perils of his indifference to civil rights - that a stronger stance would have been not only morally right but also politically expedient.

Niven contends that the Kennedy administration's position on civil rights marked a failure to recognize the depth of the connection voters made between Kennedy, the Democratic party, and the civil rights movement, as well as a failure to recognize the importance of the African American voting bloc in the long run.".

"Niven explores how the Freedom Rides set a pattern for JFK's reaction to the civil rights movement, and how the president tried to make a half-hearted stand for civil rights while shoring up his support among segregationist white southern Democrats.

Drawing on voting data, public opinion polls, and a shrewd analysis of the existing literature, he shows that Kennedy and his advisors - including Attorney General Robert Kennedy - had ample evidence to recognize that the old Democratic Solid South would soon be lost and that they should court the African American vote and the white liberal vote outside the South."--BOOK JACKET.