The history of the United States as well as the history of the world changed forever almost fifty years ago when President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, JFK, was shot and killed on a sunny afternoon in Dallas Texas.
We here at LiberalAmerica.org wanted to honor America and the memory of President Kennedy on this most solemn occasion.? What follows are the memories of our friends and readers who so graciously responded to our request to share with us their remembrances of that tragic day. We proudly offer these memories from November 22, 1963 as told to us by those respondents.
Thanks to you all.
A Memory From Alabama:
I was eleven. Mama and Daddy had talked about hope for the world with Kennedy in office..mama had seen a time with fire hoses and mean dogs attacking some black people in Birmingham and they both said maybe Kennedy could fix the meanness.? In our faded green VW Bug, the radio said that he was dead and time went still. We were in front of Newberry’s, on 20th street, where black people were always standing and laughing, some were waiting for a bus..they were somewhere else now. They must be hiding.? Newberry?s, a large popular dime store, with a bus stop out front.? A very cheap “Pandora’s Box” for anyone with a quarter.? What is now called the “Civil Rights District” is just a few blocks away.
Life seemed to slide down it’s own edges and I felt like my eyes were not even on my face anymore..like the fear melted them oddly. Mama seemed broken apart and was crying so that I worried for us all.
A Memory From Alabama
I was in 6th grade French in Alabama. My teacher came into the room with the most serious face I’d ever seen and told us our President had been assassinated. There was a squirrely kid in my class who cheered – and was promptly admonished.? I, for one, had no political awareness in 1963 and I didn’t understand his reaction? – but it stuck with me all these years. Later I walked home from the school bus with my younger brother – a third grader – who was in tears. I remember my mother not understanding why he would cry over this death. That may have been the day they decided we were aliens.
A Memory From Arkansas
I was in kindergarten, on the campus of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The student teachers started crying. I remember how odd it was afterward, when people referred less and less to JFK, and started talking about LBJ. I was just learning my alphabet then, and even though I knew from the news that they referred to the young man who was gone, and the old man with the southern drawl, neither of these spellings made sensible words.
A Memory From Iowa
It was just before Thanksgiving break at the University of Iowa, Iowa City.? I’d be journeying home to Davenport, Iowa the next day to share Thanksgiving with my family.
I lived in Hillcrest Residence Hall at that time.? I was going down the stairs with the intent of walking across campus to pick up something (long forgotten) at the University bookstore.? As I was crossing the residence hall foyer, I noticed that the TV room (one per residence hall in those early days) was standing room only.? I went in and was just in time to hear the on-screen confirmation that President Kennedy had been killed in an assassination.
It was such an unexpected event and such an alien kind of event in those days that most of us just stood/sat in unbelieving stunned silence.? This kind of thing just didn’t happen in America.? President Kennedy had brought such a positive energy to the country and to the Presidency that it seemed impossible for all that promise to have ended so suddenly and horribly.
Not that long before, I had participated in one of his “calls to arms” for the improvement of citizen’s health — the 50-mile walk — and had practiced for it and had completed the same not all that many months before.
The America we lived in was one of protest marches and protest signs and sit-ins; and sometimes they might get out of hand and violent a bit, but it wasn’t a country of murder as a political tool. I think that most of us viewed this as some kind of horrible aberration involving an insane man.? In our innocence, we did not know that this was the heralding of a new and different America.?
I didn’t discuss this much with those in the TV room; each of us seemed to be drawn inward, alone with our own thoughts and views.? What do you say when the anticipated future for the country was suddenly shattered?
While listening to the swearing in of President Johnson, all I could think of was that it was back to old politics as usual.? The spark and the fire was gone.
A Memory From Michigan
I was 18 months old and I don’t remember the specific incident, but my first conscious memory is that of profound sadness. Every person in my life was sad. It wasn’t until my mid-twenties that it actually registered and I realized what my memory signified. I had known about JFK, but had never put the two together.
A Memory From Pennsylvania
It truly felt like the day the world changed forever. I was a freshman at Temple, driving down Broad Street, when the news came over the radio. From that point on, virtually every car on Broad Street slowed down to about five miles per hour and never resumed a higher speed. Whatever plans I had had for the next few days were off. I remember being glued to the TV with my family watching what seemed like an endless, incredible and unbearable drama for days.
A Memory From Pennsylvania
I was in 3rd grade in Catholic school at Saint Catherine of Sienna in Philadelphia. The nun was called out of class. I remember loud voices outside the classroom. Three nuns came back into the classroom and two of them told the class that the President had been shot. After those two nuns left, the original nun, whose class I was in, told us that the President was dead. Because they were such bad and misbehaving children, within six months my parents pulled three of my four brothers out of that school.
A Memory From Pennsylvania
I was in 2nd grade in Philadelphia. Our class was told that we were being sent home, as were the other classes, but we were not told why.? I remember walking home alone, and knowing something was very wrong. The television was on when I got home, and I learned that the President was shot and killed. There was sadness in the air. The television stayed on, and all my family watched for many days was the coverage of the assassination and its aftermath.
A Memory From Pennsylvania
I was in 4th grade and we were all sent home from school.? That was not unusual as it had happened before when a hurricane was about to hit. I remember walking home and it was a warm and sunny day. I remember experiencing death not too long before that day and comforting Grand-mom when Grand-Pop had died. I didn’t know Grand-Pop that well as he had spent the last years of his life in a nursing home and I hated to go to that place. But this was different.? We all loved President Kennedy and our family would gather around our only TV to watch and listen whenever he would speak. He was so great at that. The TV coverage seemed to go on and on. It was like the coverage of the space program except so sad and frightening.? I remember Walter Cronkite, taking off his glasses, looking at the clock, and announcing that the President was dead.? Then the difference between the new President, Lyndon Johnson, who talked so much slower and with so little inspiration.? Yes, he did do some very good things continuing the Kennedy agenda.? But then, as I grew up, came the Viet Nam War and soon I really hated that man.
A Memory From Tennessee
I was in the Senior lounge in High School and the principal came over to me and told me what had happened. I ask him could I go home and he said yes but quietly. I drove home and turned on the TV in time to see Walter Cronkite tell America the President was dead. I think this event changed the destiny of this country more than we think. I am still angry about it.
A Memory From Texas
I was in 2nd grade. I remember they herded us into a small auditorium, told us what happened and sent us home. I don’t remember much else except quiet for some reason, and then watching the funeral on our only TV. I remember the sound of the horses pulling the wagon with the coffin for what seemed like hours.
A Memory From Utah
I was in Mr. Smith’s 7th Grade English class when the principal came on the loudspeaker and announced what had happened. He then told us to go home. Several girls were crying and one in particular was sobbing and saying that a n****r had done it – I was shocked. I went home and turned on the TV and watched it for what seemed like weeks.
A Memory From Washington
I was in 3rd grade in a Catholic grade 1-8th grade school. On that day, the Sister who was the Principal went to each classroom to announce that President Kennedy had been shot. We were all let out of school early and when i got home and my Mom had the TV on was when I found out he had died. Very sad scary day. Since he was our first Catholic President, I still have the card with his photo on it.
A Memory From Wisconsin
I remember it so clearly to this day and I was ONLY in 3rd grade at Salem Grade School in SE Wisconsin. We were in Art Class when our teacher came in to tell us that President Kennedy was shot and killed. It was my mother’s birthday. Every night we watched the evening news and everyone was upset. I was scared about what it all meant for us, who would kill deliberately? It was horrifying to see how someone could kill. Religions taught the 10 commandments. Thou shall not kill, racked my brains. The news coverage of it all kept me glued to the TV. It was a terrible thing to happen to such a great person with little children.
A Memory From Wyoming
The day the President was shot we lived in Fox Park, WYO…we had a snow day because the teachers lived in Laramie and couldn’t get up the mountain..the TV was on.. ?As The World Turns? was on when it was announced. My mom let me beat the frosting for the chocolate cake she had made..she was frying potatoes and deer meat for lunch..we had boarders who came to our house for meals and it was always a big spread. Walter came on with we interrupt this program and said he had been shot in Dallas as they were in a motorcade..then it went back to regular programing..20 min. later he came back and said the President had died ..I was horrified. He was the first person I knew who had died. I was in the fourth grade..From then on I slept facing the door and my back to the wall..I was scared to death
I do remember all the horror in the faces of people watching the motorcade at Dealey Plaza. I think the American public went into shock. In my mind it was the first terroristic attack on the American president since Abraham Lincoln.
I remember crying till the super sobs came and could not catch my breath..I thought he was like related to us or something my folks were so devastated. We watched the funeral on TV also..we were still snowed in.
Epilogue
Some of these memories are so strikingly beautiful and compassionate.? The memory from the eleven year old from Alabama and the 6th grader from Alabama touch the heart.? Goodness, kindness, and empathy for others certainly is found within the children and can stay with them throughout their lives no matter what forces exist in the world to convince them otherwise.
Thanks again to all of you out there for participating.? And we miss you Mr. President and wish that you had not been taken away from us so soon.
Please take a moment to listen to the audio below for a ballad that speaks volumes, ?Abraham, Martin, And John?, and don’t forget Bobby, by Dion DiMucci. Let peace and justice rain down upon us all.
Edited/ Published by: SB