What first comes to mind for many Dallas visitors is the very thing this Texas metropolis has at times wanted to forget: the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which occurred 47 years ago today.

Following the 35th president’s murder, there was a backlash against Dallas’ populace—Americans who were themselves plagued by grief and guilt over the painful chapter in U.S. history that had transpired in their city.
A plaque beside the JFK memorial erected near the site of the assassination perhaps best describes residents’ unique perspective on Kennedy’s passing:

“When he died on November 22, 1963, shock and agony touched human conscience throughout the world. In Dallas, Texas, there was a special sorrow.”

Over time, buildings the tragedy had embedded in the public consciousness began to deteriorate, and some hoped a wrecking ball would demolish what seemed only to be cheerless reminders of that fateful autumn afternoon. But fortunately, Dallas’ overwhelming heartache did not lead to the destruction of such historically significant sites as a downtown plaza and a seven-story building at Elm and Houston streets. Instead, these locations remain today as part of the city’s and the nation’s heritage.

Memories of subdued family exchanges and frenzied news reports readily flood the minds of those old enough to remember the day Camelot fell. Possibly to rediscover that lost era, more than 2 million people from all walks of life make the pilgrimage to the assassination site each year. Everyone from CEOs to professors to conspiracy theorists arrive at Dealey Plaza in search of something, whether it be hard evidence or emotional closure.

Most visits include the former book depository from which investigators ruled Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old ex-Marine, fired upon the Kennedy motorcade. Now the Dallas County Administration Building, the red-bricked structure houses The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, where pensive visitors, aided by a self-guiding audio tour, shuffle past subdued, well-chosen displays. Near the reconstructed, glass-enclosed “sniper's perch,” visitors’ imaginations work overtime to re-create the sensory details of Nov. 22: the roar of the crowd lining the parade route; the smell of gunfire as bullet cartridges clink to the ground; the sight of the presidential limo racing away to Parkland Memorial Hospital.

While it’s tough to convey the sheer pain and chaos of that time period to those with no firsthand knowledge of the assassination, the museum’s poignant—and sometimes chilling—exhibits manage to bring new meaning to the facts and faces younger generations thought they knew well. The individuals who lived through this devastating episode are tasked with unraveling the life and too-soon death of the nation’s youngest elected president, a man who was both a Pulitzer Prize winner as well as a husband and father. We hear the inimitable Walter Cronkite discussing JFK’s global impact and, through still shots taken from Abraham Zapruder’s highly scrutinized footage of the assassination, witness Kennedy’s last moments with his wife, Jacqueline.

In 1999, The Sixth Floor Museum became caretaker of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial. Funded entirely by Dallas citizens and designed by Kennedy family friend Phillip Johnson in 1970, the minimalist concrete cenotaph speaks both to bereaved visitors paying tribute to the revered leader and to locals still burdened by his untimely departure:

“It is not a memorial to the pain and sorrow of death, but stands as a permanent tribute to the joy and excitement of one man's life.”

Perhaps the same could be said of Dallas itself, which, through preserving its tarnished moment in American history, has done its part to ensure President John F. Kennedy and his legacy will not be forgotten.

All photos by Maria White

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