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Page 14 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, July 6, 1984
Kennedy negotiated for civil rights
From AP and UPI "virtually taken over" Birmingham in
BOSTON - Nearly 10 hours of the wake of fires that destroyed a chur-
secretly recorded White House tapes ch and the home of King's brother.
released yesterday show an earnest "The governor has virtually taken
President John Kennedy cajoling If there is going to be more violence over the city. You are going to have his
mayors, governors and congressmen to tonight that is obviously what Governor people around sticking bayonets in
accept integration in the South and people and hitting them with clubs and
support his civil rights programs. Wallace wants.' guns," he said.
The scratchy recordings, made 21 - President John Kennedy "You are going to have rallies all
years ago in Kennedy's Oval Office, over the country calling for the taking
also include dramatic meetings bet- of forceful action to protect the rights of
ween Kennedy and Martin Luther King the people in Birmingham," Robert
Jr. Kennedy said.
"THERE IS a danger we will face the A worried president discussed sen-
worst race riot we've ever seen," the King made the comments when he tapes gleaned from 325 office conver- ding troops to Birmingham following
civil rights leader warns the president and other civil rights leaders visited sations and 281 phone calls recorded disturbances brought on by the bom-
in a White House meeting Sept. 19, 1963, Kennedy at the Oval Office in the White from mid-1962 until Nov. 7, 1963 - 15 bing.
four days after a bomb killed four House, where the president secretly days before Kennedy's assassination in "If there is going to be more violence
children at a black church in Bir- recorded meetings and telephone con- Dallas. tonight, that is obviously what Gover-
mingham, Ala. versations. Repeatedly, Kennedy can be heard nor Wallace wants," says a somber
King asks Kennedy to send federal King apparently sat silent during trying to line up support for his civil president.
troops to protect the city's black com- another meeting with Kennedy and rights legislation while arm-twisting Last fall, the library released about
munity, saying, "Something dramatic other civil rights leaders on Aug. 28, Southern officials to hasten integration. 40 minutes of conversations taped
must be done at this time to give the 1963, the day when King led 200,000 "God, there must be some bright during the Cuban mitsile crisis;
Negro in Birmingham, Alabama, a new marchers to Washington and delivered young fellow down there you can get," another 11 hours of tape released last
sense of hope and a good sense of his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Kennedy is heard to say on June 18, 1963 summer dealt with Kennedy's efforts to
protection." The tapes, released by the John Ken- as he tries to persuade Allen Thompson, integrate the University of Mississippi.
But Kennedy expresses reluctance at nedy Library in Boston, cover conver- then mayor of Jackson, Miss., to quell Others dealt with a proposed tax cut
sending troops, saying it would not get sations from March to October 1963. demonstrations demanding that he hire and the Peace Corps.
whites to accept integration. Kennedy was assassinated the black police officers. The JFK Library did not make tran-
"IT DOESN'T really make them face following month, on Nov. 22, 1963, and IN CONVERSATIONS taped May 12, scripts of the latest tapes to be
it," the president tells King. "First of King was shot to death in 1968. 1963, Attorney General Robert Kennedy released, "because of the prohibitive
all, we've got to get the white com- THIS IS THE third time the library told his brother and others that then cost of transcribing the extensive
munity to takeon its responsibility." has released portions of 260 hours of Alabama Gov. George Wallace had meetings material."
Reagan hails Detroit auto industry recovery

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(Continued from Page 1)
Reagan tossed a barb at pessimistic
forecasters, who he said "were wrong
when they said inflation and interest
rates couldn't come down...wrong when
they said sxpansion couldn't last - and
I think if they keep running down
America they'll be wrong again."
The president said the current
economic situation "is a far cry from
the gloom and doom of just four years
ago."
HE TOLD plant employees that the
recession which plagued the first years
of his administration was "the
culmination of years of too much
taxing, spending and regulating by
those who claimed they could spend
your earnings better than you could."
Although the UAW has endorsed
Democratic candidate for president
Walter Mondale, the President's speech
met frequent applause from baseball-
capped workers waving American
flags.
A return to work after lengthy
periods on indefinite lay-off coupled
with high job satisfaction at Orion has
caused some Orion employees to break
ranks with the union on this issue.,
"I DIDN'T support (Reagan)
originally, but I started to after the way
things have been going," said Jerry
Farmer, who spent eight months on
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Union members listen as Reagan dedicates a new auto plant yesterday.

indefinite lay-off from the Fisher Body
plant in Pontiac before returning to
work sixteen months ago. "I like his
promise to keep things the way they
are."
Maintaining the status quo is
important to some Orion employees
who see Reagan as the indirect source
of their jobs.,
"Under a Democrat I got laid-off and
under a Republican I came back to
work," remarked Brian Groat, who
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returned to work in February after over
.two years on indefinite lay-off.
"I GOT MY job back-dthat's the
bottom line," Groat said. "If my
vote's got anything to say, he'll be
president again."
But enthusiasm for Reagan's speech
was not universal.
"It didn't do nothing for him," said
Steve Hillman, who was laid-off for two
and a half years and returned to work
this year. "It sounds like a lot of
political talk. I kind of think the only
reason I got back to work was because
it's an election year."
Earlier yesterday, UAW President
Owen Bieber issued a reminder that
90,000 members remain on indefinite
lay-off.

Reagan's speech followed on the
heels of an announcement by GM that
its auto sales for the six-month period
ended June 30 showed a 26.6 percent
increase over sales for the same period
last year.
At the conclusion of the President's
speech, a remote-controlled robot
brought a model of a car preototype to
GM Chairman Roger Smith, who
presented the model to Reagan.
"We felt (the robot) was the perfect
candidate to deliver you the model,"
Smith told the President.
"Roger," Reagan quipped as the
robot withdrew, "that fellow that's
leaving isn't a candidate for anything,
is he?"

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