The Cold War and Civil Rights 269out of the way. The following day, Medgar Evers, a Mississippi civil
rights activist, was shot as he stood at the door of his home. Pressure
built quickly to address this troubling issue, and over 200 , 000 black
and white activists marched for “ jobs and freedom” from the Washing-
ton Monument to the Lincoln Memorial on August 28 , 1963 , where they
heard Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous “I have a dream” speech.
It was the largest public demonstration ever held in the nation’s capital.
Then the violence in the country reached a peak with the assassina-
tion of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, November 22 ,
1963. It numbed the nation. The temper, mood, and political atmosphere
in the country underwent a profound change. Few could believe that a
young, handsome, seemingly energetic, well-loved president could be
killed in plain sight during a public appearance in the streets of a major
city. People wept openly. In a single moment the nation seemed to age
and grow morose. Kennedy’s body was flown back to Washington, where
it lay in state in the White House before being removed to the Rotunda
of the Capitol and placed on the catafalque that had supported the re-
mains of President Lincoln. Throughout the night and the next morn-
ing, thousands of mourners silently filed past the coffin to pay their
respects. Heads of state and foreign dignitaries from around the world
arrived to attend the funeral. A brief ceremony in the Rotunda included
short eulogies by the Senate majority leader, Mike Mansfield, Speaker of
the House John McCormack, and Chief Justice Earl Warren.
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson had accompanied Kennedy to
Texas and was sworn in as chief executive aboard the plane that carried
Kennedy’s remains back to Washington. Appearing before Congress
on November 27 , he declared that no eulogy “could more eloquently
honor President Kennedy’s memory than the earliest possible passage
of a civil rights bill for which he fought so long.” Then, on January 8 ,
1964 , in his first State of the Union address, Johnson announced the
start of a “War on Poverty” in the United States.
In what was interpreted as the wish of the members of Congress to
demonstrate forcefully how devastated the entire nation was over Ken-
nedy’s assassination, they enacted in quick succession a number of im-
portant mea sures. First, the Clean Air Act of 1963 was passed on
December 17 , authorizing $ 95 million for matching grants by state and
local agencies to reduce pollution and develop air control programs.