Aug. 11, 1963 - Senator Richard Russell (D-Ga.) (pictured top right with Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, Senator J.W. Fulbright, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk) said today that if a Presidential election between President Kennedy and Senator Barry Goldwater were held now, the Arizona Republican would win in Georgia. Russell said that while he is willing to “wait and see,” as matters now stand it will be “very difficult” for him to “actively support” President Kennedy in next year’s election. He added that he has “no intention” of “knocking myself out” in taking the stump for President Kennedy in 1964. Interviewed on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press,” Russell described the country as being on “an emotional binge” over civil rights. Russell said the nation had made more progress in the 100 years since the end of slavery “than two races living together have ever made anywhere else on the face of the earth.” “Negroes in this country have more rights, they have more of the good things of life, than all of the Negroes all over the world,” he declared.
