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Dwight David Eisenhower of Pennsylvania

34th President

1953-1961

THE TIMES: America was finally enjoying postwar prosperity. The underlying problems that would crop up in the 1960s were temporarily hidden behind fast food, shopping malls, split-level homes, television, drive-ins and rock and roll.

THE PLUS SIDE: Everybody liked Ike, including black Americans, who would give their vote to the victorious World War II general in large numbers, the last time they would do so for a Republican. He reciprocated with policies that encouraged banks to lend to black first-time home buyers. The Civil Rights Movement began in 1955 during his first administration, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was passed on his watch, and he famously sent federal troops to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957.

THE MINUS SIDE: Operation Wetback, responsible for deporting millions of Hispanics back to Mexico, makes Trump’s Wall pale in comparison. Eisenhower didn’t stand in the way of civil rights equality, but he also did little to encourage it.

OVERALL: Ike was much like the 1950s: decent and well-meaning on the surface but bland and conformist. Middleclass black Americans steadily made their way up the ladder.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts 35th President

1961-1963

THE TIMES: The conformist 1950s ended, and the 1960s, arguably the most transformative decade in U.S. and world history, began. Blacks were impacted the most by the enormous cultural and political changes taking place.

THE PLUS SIDE: The young Catholic president promised a New Frontier; however, he was slow in delivering that promise for black Americans. JFK was more reactive than radical, and needed civil rights legislation languished until after his assassination. His Justice Department, led by his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, battled racist rednecks and protected black and white integrationists in the South every year he was in office, while trying to protect leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. from their own FBI.

THE MINUS SIDE: The wealthy Kennedys viewed most blacks as servants if they considered them at all—that is, until the president and his brother Bobby saw them being brutally beaten and murdered in the South while fighting for their civil rights.

OVERALL: Kennedy’s administration was cut short with his murder, so there will always be a “what-if” attached to his brief presidency. Before he died, he showed a capacity to learn and grow and even feel some empathy. He appeared to be moving in the right direction with regard to civil rights—with much prodding.