General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 9 Ways FDR's 'New Deal' Purposely Excluded Blacks [View all]The Second Stone
(2,900 posts)and I can't respect your opinions on the matter. They show an extraordinarly poor grasp of history and cherry picking of information to support a conclusion. "9 things that prove JFK was a SOB" isn't a historical presentation, it's a legal brief and argument. It's shameful. Yes, you have reasons for your position, but they are not in full historical context.
Cherry picking is a serious academic sin. You've started with a thesis and only picked information that supports your conclusion. It doesn't contain balance.
http://millercenter.org/president/biography/fdroosevelt-the-american-franchise
http://rooseveltinstitute.org/african-americans-and-new-deal-look-back-history/
The most prominent white American in the 1930s who had excellent relations with black Americans was not FDR. But it was Eleanor Roosevelt, who had spent her whole life working hard on those issues. The first US President who had a black dinner guest was Eleanor's uncle, Theodore Roosevelt, and he had such a backlash from it that he didn't repeat the invitation. Expecting the Democrats in the 1930s to destroy their political power over an issue that they did not either yet understand or acknowledge in full (outside a small circle of people that included Eleanor Roosevelt) and that most had firmly set racist views against is a huge misunderstanding of history and racism in America.
While Lyndon Johnson was fully subversive in his desire to integrate the US government 30 years later, it was in a different context and with a full blown civil rights movement at his back. Johnson was one of the few US presidents able and willing to get in front and go against the tide for an issue that helped a poor minority, Lincoln and the 13th Amendment being the other.
Older people aren't necessarily stupider and more senile than you, sometimes we have a whole lot more experience and education and put things in the context of a whole view.