JFK hails Birmingham racial truce 50 years ago this hour (1963)


Video: 'President John F. Kennedy's 55th News Conference, May 8, 1963'

(Wednesday, May 8, 1963, 4:00 p.m. EDT; during the Birmingham Campaign, part of the African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–68)) — U.S. President John F. Kennedy today at his news conference hailed what looked like a compromise in the tense racial situation in Birmingham, Alabama — the halt of African-American demonstrations in exchange for “steps to meet the justifiable needs of the Negro community.”