I guess my layout wasn't as clear as I thought. Johnson's "tragically great" was my overall assessment of his presidency. On foreign policy, I gave him a D instead of an F, because he didn't nuke Hanoi and he decided to not try to be reelected, but instead devoted his efforts to bringing the North Vietnamese into negotiations (foiled by Nixon's subversive conspiracy with the South Vietnamese).

Truman was a tough SOB. As an artillery captain in WWI, he kept his guns firing up to the last second, causing who knows how much needless suffering (and end to all suffering for how many?). One of the best things he did was fire the crazy narcissist MacArthur.

Carter is a great ex-president. I think his Fed Chair Volcker gets unwarranted credit for bringing the inflation of the 70's under control. I think it mainly ended because the effects of OPEC finally percolated through the world economy. I think Carter's restraint in the face of Iran's invasion of US territory was admirable. Who knows what would have happened if not for a sandstorm?

Clinton, hmm...the best thing about him was Robert Reich.

Obama, near great because he didn't flub the Great Recession recovery. The length of which may be due to the Republican's resistance to most of the stimulus he proposed. Also, near great, because I need to keep peace with my partner. Also he seems to be honored more outside his own land.

You wrote, "Although the majority of freed slaves chose to work for wages instead of taking up land ownership. Most of those who took the land wound up selling it back to whites...".

I took issue with the idea that "most chose to work for wages". From what I read in some states they were not allowed to purchase land so the only alternative was to become wage slaves. Also, most who could take up land, didn't take up offers of free land, but purchased it (all be it seemingly at below the market rate). And even though black farm ownership increased after the war (mainly through purchase), economic downturns harmed black ownership more that white.

1)Bay of Pigs. During the period between the election and his inauguration, JFK was briefed on a CIA plan developed within the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The United States was distrustful of Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba, and wary of his relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premier. The plan anticipated that support from the Cuban people and perhaps even from elements of the Cuban military would lead to the overthrow of Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States. His fault that he allowed the prevailing wisdom of the CIA and Eisenhower to allow it to continue over his reluctance for the plan.

2) Vietnam. So getting assassinated was sticking it to Johnson? He was pulling out. In fact, that is one of the hypothesis on why he was assassinated. Another being his pro-civil rights stance. Johnson reversed his plan and beefed things up.

3) Civil Rights. Again he died before his Civil Rights proposal had been passed as a bill let alone signed by him. Johnson signed it and got the credit. By the 1960 presidential campaign, civil rights had emerged as a crucial issue. Just a few weeks before the election, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested while leading a protest in Atlanta, Georgia. John Kennedy phoned his wife, Coretta Scott King to express his concern, while a call from Robert Kennedy to the judge helped secure her husband's safe release. The Kennedys' personal intervention led to a public endorsement by Martin Luther King Sr., the influential father of the civil rights leader.

Across the nation, more than 70 percent of African Americans voted for Kennedy, and these votes provided the winning edge in several key states. When President Kennedy took office in January 1961, African Americans had high expectations for the new administration.

Thank you JoyV. A great history lesson. Even living through the era, we do not realize everything that happened and the causes of the happenings. Then, after a while, we get a lot of skewed history.. you do great research.

But Kennedy's narrow election victory and small working margin in Congress left him cautious. He was reluctant to lose southern support for legislation on many fronts by pushing too hard on civil rights legislation. Instead, he appointed unprecedented numbers of African Americans to high-level positions in the administration and strengthened the Civil Rights Commission. He spoke out in favor of school desegregation, praised a number of cities for integrating their schools, and put Vice President Lyndon Johnson in charge of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Attorney General Robert Kennedy turned his attention to voting rights, initiating five times the number of suits brought during the previous administration.

In 1962, James H. Meredith Jr., an African American Air Force veteran, was denied admission to the University of Mississippi, known as "Ole Miss." Meredith attempted to register four times without success.

Long telephone conversations between the president, the attorney general, and Governor Ross Barnett failed to produce a solution. When federal marshals accompanied Meredith to campus in another attempt to register for classes, rioting erupted. Two people died and dozens were injured. President Kennedy mobilized the National Guard and sent federal troops to the campus. Meredith registered the next day and attended his first class, and segregation ended at the University of Mississippi.

After the Bull Conner fiasco, invoking federal authority, President Kennedy sent several thousand troops to an Alabama air base, and his administration responded by speeding up the drafting of a comprehensive civil rights bill.

Governor George Wallace had vowed at his inauguration to defend "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever." In June 1963, he upheld his promise to "stand in the schoolhouse door" to prevent two black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama. To protect the students and secure their admission, President Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard. And on June 11, the president addressed the nation.

Kennedy defined the civil rights crisis as moral, as well as constitutional and legal. He announced that major civil rights legislation would be submitted to the Congress to guarantee equal access to public facilities, to end segregation in education, and to provide federal protection of the right to vote.

Kennedy's comprehensive civil rights bill cleared several hurdles in Congress and won the endorsement of House and Senate Republican leaders. It was not passed, however, before November 22, 1963, when President Kennedy was assassinated. The bill was left in the hands of Lyndon B. Johnson. Before becoming vice president, Johnson had served more than two decades in Congress as a congressman and senator from Texas. He used his connections with southern white congressional leaders, and with the assistance of Robert Kennedy’s Justice Department and the outpouring of emotion after the president's assassination, the Civil Rights Act was passed as a way to honor President Kennedy.

4) Taxes. Kennedy had campaigned on the slogan of “getting America moving again” He battled congress over his tax cut plan as the socialist idea that the way to increase the economic wealth was by spending us out of a recession. Those in favor of high taxes claimed the ending of the depression had nothing to do with WWII but was all due to FDRs New Deal spending. JFK disagreed! And 60% of Americans agreed with JFK.