The 50th anniversary of JFK assassination

JFK and MLK shared an era and a cause, but they were not close allies, as the tone of these remarks makes clear. They admired each other’s best qualities but were suspicious of the other’s flaws. On civil rights, they marched to different cadences.


Kennedy meets with leaders of the March on Washington at the White House, Aug. 28, 1963.

Early in his administration, President Kennedy did not want to be seen as too eager to press for such moves as equal housing and voting protection for minorities, even though he saw such changes as inevitable. King was not invited to his inauguration or to an initial meeting of civil rights figures in the Oval Office.

King and other leaders did not think the new White House was doing all it could. Freedom Riders intent on ending segregation in interstate transportation spread through the South and began to force Kennedy’s hand. In May of 1961, Bobby Kennedy personally directed the deployment of federal marshals to protect King in a dangerous situation in Montgomery, Ala., where the civil rights leader had gone to preach to Freedom Rider supporters in Ralph Abernathy’s First Baptist Church.

White moderates had counseled African-Americans to remain patient for years; they were tired of waiting. In July 1962, King publicly urged the president to do more “in the area of moral persuasion by occasionally speaking out against segregation.” Kennedy replied that his commitment to rights for all citizens was clear. “But the president’s words did little to advance the cause of civil rights or ease the tensions that were erupting in sporadic violence,” wrote historian Robert Dallek in his JFK biography “An Unfinished Life.”

In June 1963, Kennedy unveiled sweeping civil rights legislation. Among other things, it promised the right to vote to all citizens with a grade-school education, and eliminated legal discrimination in public accommodations such as hotels and restaurants.

Kennedy remained hesitant to embrace the nation’s most prominent civil rights figure, however. In part this was due to allegations that a key King aide had communist ties, as well as the FBI’s notorious surveillance of King, which produced evidence of womanizing.

The FBI’s file on King’s sex life was dauntingly thick, Berl L. Bernhard, staff director of the US Commission on Civil Rights from 1958 to 1963, said in an oral history at the Kennedy Library. “I do think the president was aware of it, and I know [darn] well some people in the administration were aware of it,” Mr. Bernhard said. Kennedy himself had numerous affairs, of course. It’s unknown how he felt about the juxtaposition of his own recklessness with the King allegations.

In the summer of 1963 the administration was worried about the upcoming March on Washington to highlight civil rights. Unable to stop the planning, the White House recruited white union and labor groups to participate, to counter criticism that whites were not interested in sweeping civil rights changes.



King’s triumphant speech at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28 belied these worries. Afterwards the president met with civil rights leaders in the Oval Office, and among other things emphasized the difficulties he faced getting a civil rights bill through a Congress dominated by conservative Southern committee chairmen. JFK demurred when A. Philip Randolph asked him to lead a “crusade” to pass his legislation. What was needed, said JFK, was not such dramatic action but political leverage intended to win some Republican support for a bipartisan bill.

In the end the bill did pass. It is an enduring legacy of the Kennedy era. But it was muscled through those Southern-dominated committees by President Lyndon Johnson after Kennedy’s assassination. In part it was LBJ’s legislative craftsmanship that carried the day. In part it was enabled by emotional appeals to the spirit of JFK.

“By this and other efforts of mourning, Kennedy acquired the Lincolnesque mantle of a unifying crusader who had bled against the thorn of race,” wrote historian Taylor Branch in “Parting the Waters,” his Pulitzer-winning chronicle of the civil rights movement. “Honest biographers later found it impossible to trace an engaged personality in proportion to the honor.”

When John F. Kennedy became President of the United States at the age of 43, he became not only the youngest President elected but arguably one of the funniest, intelligent, and charismatic. The charm and optimism that he and his family embodied captivated the American public in an entirely new way, and his term—though tragically cut short—was affectionately known as Camelot. If President Kennedy was the King Arthur of this golden era, however, there is no doubt that Jacqueline Kennedy was the trendsetting queen.



First Lady Jackie Kennedy, along with her husband, firmly believed that the White House was a place where America’s thriving culture was to be promoted, showcased, and celebrated. Her respect for the arts was also reflected in her own signature style as she became a symbol of sophisticated fashion. Although Jackie discouraged the excessive focus on her appearance in the media, her unique and refined wardrobe certainly set a new standard during her time in Washington. She quickly became an international style icon, influencing the fashion of not only women across America, but around the world—and continues to do so today.



Her daywear generally consisted of simple sleeveless dresses, wrist-length gloves, and strands of pearls or a brooch. Around the White House, it was common to see Jackie in high-waist trousers with a trim blouse, turtleneck, or cashmere sweater. She almost always topped off her daytime look with her iconic black, oversized sunglasses—a trend that has yet to go out of style. When she was traveling to foreign countries—like India—she was mindful to dress according to the custom of the host nation. For eveningwear, Jackie usually went for the sleeveless, single-colored dress with a bateau neckline—one that runs horizontally, front and back, across the collarbone.



She also could be found at nighttime events wearing long sheath dresses or off-the-shoulder gowns. Jackie is pictured at a White House dinner here with a white dress and matching elbow-length gloves. Perhaps her most recognizable outfit is the watermelon-pink suit with her trademark pillbox hat that she wore the day her husband was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. This iconic pink suit was designed as an exact replica of the Chanel suit with Chanel fabric, but made in the U.S. to avoid political criticism. Despite the bloodstains from the tragic motorcade, Jackie insisted on keeping the suit on for the swearing in of Lyndon B. Johnson later that day.



Perhaps her most recognizable outfit is the watermelon-pink suit with her trademark pillbox hat that she wore the day her husband was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. This iconic pink suit was designed as an exact replica of the Chanel suit with Chanel fabric, but made in the U.S. to avoid political criticism. Despite the bloodstains from the tragic motorcade, Jackie insisted on keeping the suit on for the swearing in of Lyndon B. Johnson later that day. The suit is currently housed in the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, although the pink hat has disappeared before the rest of the outfit made its way to the Archives.