Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63

by Taylor Branch

The President himself might be required to act publicly, if things went badly. All three Justice officials were agreed that the most drastic and least desirable course was the “Little Rock method”—the use of Regular Army troops to guard the Freedom Riders’ bus. Among the many drawbacks of this option were President Kennedy’s campaign statements faulting Eisenhower for allowing the 1957 Little Rock school crisis to deteriorate to the point that federal troops had been required. Kennedy had promised a more vigorous, farsighted presidential leadership to spare the country such traumas. To falter now, so early in his Administration and so soon after the Bay of Pigs, might raise questions about the President’s elementary competence. It would certainly bring the wrath of the South down on him, and Kennedy, unlike Eisenhower, rested his thin governing margin upon solid electoral support in the South.