In November 1963, one of the most traumatic moments in US history happened in Dallas.
cameras were there in Dealey Plaza when an assassin killed President Kennedy. That coverage will soon be available to the public at the Sixth Floor Museum.
One of 5 photographers captured the moments after the gunshots rang out and the president’s motorcade sped away to Parkland Hospital. Reporters interview the man who served the president’s last hotel meal, the judge who swore in President Johnson on Air Force One, and the mother of the accused assassin.
Those clips and others will be available later this year online, on display in the exhibits, and in the museum’s archives for student and professional researchers.
“Here we are thirty-five years later, we’re trying to engage a younger generation. We’re trying to teach people why history matters,” said Nicola Longford, the museum’s executive director.
Longford says controversy and questions still swirl around the events leading up to the assassination. The footage will be more primary documents available to help lay out all the facts we know up to now.
“The people that come here are not your average museum-goer. They know that something happened. They want to know their own meaning in it. How this has affected their lives and how they can get better perspectives on the world that we’re living in now?” said Longford.
The museum now has all known local news footage from the time, including before showing Kennedy’s previous trips to Texas and after, showing the fallout and the new Johnson administration. The archive footage includes content from 1956 to 1983.
Leaders at the museum say they are still looking for people to share records or firsthand accounts of that day in Dallas and are asking members of the public to share them if they are available.
