Documenting the American South Logo oral histories of the
American South  Tenuous relationship between the Southern
Regional Council and the Kennedy Administration  Dunbar
discusses in more detail his interaction with the federal
government in trying to garner executive support for the aims of
the Southern Regional Council. Beginning with a description of a
secret luncheon hosted by new Attorney General Robert Kennedy,
Dunbar notes that the Justice Department made only tentative
steps towards joining forces with the Southern Regional Council
and other civil rights organizations in the early 1960s. He goes
on to discuss the reaction of the White House and Congress to
his handbook, "Federal Executive and Civil Rights," which
enumerated measures towards racial justice that the executive
branch could take sans legislation. Dunbar's assessment of these
interactions demonstrates how the SRC had a tenuous relationship
at best with the Kennedy administration which was only willing
to take nominal steps in supporting