The current issue of the Atlantic has a fascinating photo gallery of 1963, a reminder of the deeply divided United States of America over which JFK presided.
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Quotable
- Mexico City CIA Station: 'STATION WOULD APPRECIATE EFFORT TO DELETE PHOTO FROM PUBLICATION.' "STATION WOULD APPRECIATE EFFORT TO DELETE PHOTO FROM PUBLICATION." - Mexico City CIA Station to Headquarters, Sep 25 1964.
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John F. Kennedy Library and MuseumScene of the crime:
Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey PlazaWatch the Zapruder film:
The famous home movie of the assassination (warning: graphic imagery).First official story:
Warren Commission Report (1964)Second official story:
House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) Report (1979)Oliver Stone's "JFK": What do historians think?
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- What did JFK’s doctors think about his wounds?April 23, 2013
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General
Some really interesting photos here, not only regarding JFK, but also regarding civil rights.
Also, interesting to note that the population of the world in 1963, was less than half of what it is today!!
Agreed, George! Talk about courage. (Photo #15) Black college student Dorothy Bell, 19, of Birmingham, Alabama, waits at a downtown Birmingham lunch counter for service that never came, April 4, 1963. She was later arrested with 20 others in sit-in attempts. (AP Photo)
Actually, many of those photographs depict exemplary courage.
In 1992 I was working at 1480 AM WABB as a talk show host, and I had the chance to interview Chris McNair, who at the time was challenging U.S. Senator Richard Shelby in Alabama’s Democratic primary. Chris is the father of 11-year-old Denise McNair, one of the 4 little girls killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th St. Baptist church in Birmingham.
It wasn’t until 1977 that Robert Chambliss was tried for murder in connection with the bombing deaths and found guilty. Chambliss was tried largely using evidence collected at the time of the actual bombing by the FBI. That evidence was later obtained by then Alabama attorney general Bill Baxley, who prosecuted the case.
In 2000, 37 years after the bombing, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry were also convicted for their roles in the killings. One man involved died before he could be brought to justice. All four were alleged to have been involved with the Klu Klux Klan.
It was quite a privilege to have been able to so personally connect with that tragic, yet historic moment in the Civil Rights struggle. It is precisely the type of courage in the face of such reprehensible, unimaginable, and heart breaking tragedy displayed by Mr. McNair that inspired me so much in my younger days.
How many times in the media today do you hear Lee Harvey Oswald referred to as “THE ASSASSIN” of John Kennedy without any mention of how machine gun riddled the Warren Report fantasy is? Actually, it is occurring less and less as the years go by.
Because LHO was US intelligence, I do think he was involved with the JFK assassination in some way. But any fool should know by now the head kill shot came from the front and that JFK was shot in both the neck, right temple and upper back – meaning multiple shooters.
“Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is placed on a stretcher after moments after being shot in the stomach in Dallas, Texas, on November 24, 1963. Nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald as the prisoner was being transferred through the underground garage of Dallas police headquarters.”
>>Lee Harvey Oswald, “accused” assassin . . . <<
Occasionally I have contacted newspapers and radio stations when they refer to Oswald as "Kennedy's assassin". I ask them to change it to "alleged" assassin, at the very least, and then remind them that he was never tried and convicted . . . nor was the evidence of his guilt particularly compelling.
Most of the reporters are far too young to have any interest in the case, so they just cite the official version. History and journalism instructors and establishment press have programmed them to believe that anyone asking for a correction is a confused conspiracy cultist with too much time on his hands. An appeal to Constitutional awareness and respect for the judiciary system sometimes yields desired results. Usually, not.
Realizing that this forum is populated by experienced researchers who know this stuff in detail, I'll still make the following comment. We can be very thankful for something that most of us take for granted: Oswald's arrest and brief survival. The world got to see the face and hear the voice of the real person in real time. His short confinement revealed (1) Ruby's knowledge of FPCC and his preoccupation with the assassination event; (2) Oswald's demeanor, denial of guilt, and alibi for the important timeframe (and a paraffin test and intriguing phone call); (3) shoddy police work including inexplicable failure to record Oswald's interrogations and (4) the mismatch between Oswald and the Mexico City tapes and pictures. And his murder, of course.
Oswald and Ruby were the only two individuals "at the scene" who were arrested, detained at length, and interrogated. It is extremely important that the government was not able to define them – especially Oswald – in absentia. Honest investigations of Oswald, Ruby, Eugene Brading and some of the others who were arrested and released on the 22nd would have solved the crime. No one wanted to open Pandora's Box.
Contrast most of these pictures to the Donna Reed show that was on and the time and maybe we could just get a glimpse of the distortion of what we wanted to be and what was true.
The photo of RFK meeting (sort of) with protestors is poignant. Yes, Kennedy is speaking into a bullhorn, an object that came to have negative associations with authority as the 60s wore on. But at least he took the time to appear before the protestors himself rather than send a subordinate in his place. I can’t see that happening now.