alternatehistory.com

This may be a stupid question, but I'm taking a class in which we've discussed the Civil Rights Movement and I am in this section of my timeline and a question I've had hasn't been able to be answered.

Why weren't Executive Orders used more during the Civil Rights Movement (especially during the JFK and LBJ Administrations) to enforce change? couldn't they have done this with justification from laws already passed during reconstruction, such as the enforcement acts and

If this isn't a possibility could anyone explain to me why that is the case, or is it just an example of a more official route being taken through Congress and to have less of an impact on possible elections? I've just thought that if the executive order has had the power to end habeas corpus and inter Japanese-Americans it could have had the power to do this as well.
Top