ABSTRACT
Eisenhower's top priority in domestic policy in his last two years as president was the attainment of a balanced budget. Even more important was the symbolic impact of a balanced budget as a mark of America's resolution to adhere to its fundamental values, which were moral and spiritual as much as political and economic. Eisenhower demonstrated a similar reluctance to involve the Federal government in the field of civil rights. New Civil Rights organisations had developed, such as SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee), which added a sharper cutting edge to the Civil Rights movement. In February, 1959, Eisenhower sent a Special Message on Civil Rights to Congress, proposing a Civil Rights bill, including a range of measures. The symbolic action that made the deepest impact in the field of civil rights in the last years of the Eisenhower administration, however, occurred during the 1960 presidential election campaign.
