The Second Emancipation Proclamation is the term applied to an envisioned

executive order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of t ...

that

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

and other leaders of the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

enjoined President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

to issue. As the

Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War, Civil War. The Proclamation c ...

was an executive order issued by President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...

to free all slaves being held in states at war with the Union, the envisioned "Second Emancipation Proclamation" was to use the powers of the executive office to strike a severe blow to segregation.

Kennedy and politics

Professor David W. Blight and Allison Scharfstein writing in ''The New York Times'' point out that "During the 1960 presidential debates, Kennedy had suggested that he would address equality of opportunity by the 'stroke of the president’s pen.'" Although President Kennedy opposed segregation and had shown support for the civil rights of African Americans, he originally believed in a more measured approach to legislation given the political realities he faced in Congress. The white Southern Democrats in Congress were a powerful voting block and many of the Congressional committees were chaired by Southern segregationists. Noting this lack of progress, King told his legal adviser Clarence B. Jones "What we need to do is get Kennedy to issue a second Emancipation Proclamation on the anniversary of the first one." On June 6, 1961, King announced this idea during a New York news conference, saying "Just as Abraham Lincoln had the vision to see almost 100 years ago that this nation could not exist half-free, the present administration must have the insight to see that today the nation cannot exist half-segregated and half-free." Jones and a team of legal scholars (which would include members of the Gandhi Society for Human Rights) began to prepare the proposal, while King continued to publicize the idea.

King's meeting with Kennedy

During a tour of the Lincoln Sitting Room with Kennedy in October 1961, King pressed Kennedy for a proclamation "outlawing segregation." Kennedy said he would take it under consideration and asked King for a draft of the proposal. Two months afterward King, while campaigning against segregation in Albany, GA. sent the President a personal telegram urging him to take action. National newspapers took up the story and a debate began over whether such an executive order would be legal outside of wartime.

Drafting

On March 24, 1962, King announced that he had been invited by President Kennedy to submit for the President's signature a "second Emancipation Proclamation". King and his legal staff declared that they would have the document ready on May 17, 1962, the eighth anniversary of the decision of ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...

''.

Delivery of the text

On May 17, 1962 Kennedy received King's work in this regard in a document presented "On Behalf of the Negro Citizenry of the United States of America in commemoration of the Centennial of the Proclamation of Emancipation". It called "For National rededication to the principles of the Emancipation Proclamation and for an Executive Order Prohibiting Segregation in the United States of America". The document opened saying that "sometimes there occur moments in the history of a nation when it becomes necessary to pause and reflect upon the heritage of the past in order to determine the most meaningful course for the present and future. America today, in the field of race relations, is at such a moment...Thus, as we approach the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, eight years after the unanimous United States Supreme Court desegregation decision in ''Brown v. Board of Education'', we want to present for your consideration our thoughts on the way in which the legal and moral responsibility to end state enforced segregation and discrimination can be met...We believe the Centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation is a peculiarly appropriate time for all our citizens to rededicate themselves to those early precepts and principles of equality before the law." Historian David Blight points out that King's preamble in the document made reference to many "cultural precedents of American freedom, including

Bruce Catton Charles Bruce Catton (October 9, 1899 – August 28, 1978) was an American historian and journalist, known best for his books concerning the American Civil War. Known as a narrative historian, Catton specialized in popular history, featuring in ...

's popular Civil War books,

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspire ...

's folk song "

This Land Is Your Land "This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1940 in critical response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", with melody based on a Carter Fam ...

", the

Gettysburg Address The Gettysburg Address is a speech that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered during the American Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, now known as Gettysburg National Cemetery, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on the ...

, the autobiography by

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

and Kennedy's own ' Strategy for Peace.'" King went on to review the historical events around Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation including a quote from Frederick Douglass on awaiting word of President Lincoln's announcement. King linked this with the America of his and Kennedy's day, "we believe the time has come for Presidential leadership to be vigorously exerted to remove, once and for all time, the festering cancer of segregation and discrimination from American society. The struggle for freedom, Mr. President, of which our Civil War was but a bloody chapter, continues throughout our land today." Reviewing the limitations of the Judiciary branch, and invoking the memory of Lincoln, King wrote "The conscience of America looks now, again, some one hundred years after the abolition of chattel slavery, to the President of the United States." King proposed "in glorious commemoration of the Centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation" that the President use "the full powers of your office...to eliminate all forms of statutory-imposed segregation and discrimination" to declare all school districts to desegregate by September 1963 with "the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to immediately prepare, in consultation with local school officials, a program of integration in compliance with the mandate of ''Brown v. Board of Education''." To prohibit racial segregation in federally assisted housing. To announce "That any and all laws within the United States requiring segregation or discrimination because of race or color are contrary to the national policy of the Government of the United States and are detrimental and inimical to the best interest of the United States at home and abroad." The document went on to cite legal precedents by the hundreds, making special note of Harry S. Truman's military desegregation order of 1948.

Results

Kennedy did not take the opportunity to issue a second Emancipation Proclamation "and noticeably avoided all centennial celebrations of emancipation." In November 1962, Kennedy did issue

Executive Order 11063 Executive Order 11063 was signed by President John F. Kennedy on November 20, 1962. This Order "prohibits discrimination in the sale, leasing, rental, or other disposition of properties and facilities owned or operated by the federal government or ...

, prohibiting racial discrimination in federally supported housing or "related facilities", and months afterwards introduced an omnibus civil rights bill to Congress after his

civil rights address The Report to the American People on Civil Rights was a speech on civil rights, delivered on radio and television by United States President John F. Kennedy from the Oval Office on June 11, 1963 in which he proposed legislation that would later b ...

on national television and radio. The fulfillment of the vision of King and the Civil Rights Movement against segregation came with the landmark

Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requi ...

which was pushed through a bitterly divided Congress and signed by President

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

in 1964. In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1964 King spoke of the Civil Rights Act, saying "Then came that glowing day a few months ago when a strong Civil Rights bill became the law of our Land. This bill, which was first recommended and promoted by President Kennedy was passed because of overwhelming support and perseverance from millions of Americans, Negro and White. It came as a bright interlude in the long and sometimes turbulent struggle for Civil Rights: the beginning of a second Emancipation Proclamation providing a comprehensive legal basis for equality of opportunity."

Legacy

Historian David Blight points out that while the document calling for an executive order to act as a second Emancipation Proclamation "has been virtually forgotten" the manifesto produced by King and his associates showed his "close reading of American politics" and recalled how moral leadership could have an effect on the American public through an executive order. Despite its failure "to spur a second Emancipation Proclamation from the White House, it was an important and emphatic attempt to combat the structured forgetting of emancipation latent within Civil War memory."