Posted on 11/21/2011 10:35:35 PM PST by Lattero
Those organizing the 50th anniversary event — many of whom, like Longford, are not from Dallas or were born after 1963 — say they are not capitalizing on memories of Camelot. They want to show the world how far "Big D," the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country, has come from its days as a conservative outpost of big-haired socialites, oil tycoons and cowboys.
"People arrive and expect to see people walking down the street in cowboy hats," said Phillip Jones, head of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Instead, they find a city with the sixth-largest gay and lesbian population in the country, where 40% of the population is Hispanic and more than 20% is African American."
[...]
Darwin Payne, then a reporter with the Dallas Times Herald, had run to Dealey Plaza to interview a teary Abraham Zapruder, who filmed his iconic footage of the assassination while standing at one of the pergolas, a spot that came to be known as Zapruder's Perch. Payne said many Dallasites felt guilty because they had ignored or condoned other conflicts leading up to the assassination, including an attack by conservative activists on U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson.
"We were defensive at first. Then the realization came — we let the extreme right wing go on too long. We let them do too much," said Payne, author of "Big D: Triumphs and Troubles of an American Supercity in the 20th Century."
But in time, Payne said, "the attitude became, 'We have to be tolerant of other viewpoints and not allow extremists to run rampant.' "
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
As of the census of 2000, the racial makeup of Dallas was 50.8% White, 25.9% Black or African American, 0.5% Native American, 2.7% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 17.2% from other races, and 2.7% from two or more races. 35.6% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race. Hispanics outnumbered blacks for the first time in the 2000 census as the largest minority group in Dallas.
There were 451,833 households out of which 30.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.8% were married couples living together, 14.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.0% are classified as non-families by the United States Census Bureau. Of 451,833 households, 23,959 are unmarried partner households: 18,684 heterosexual, 3,615 same-sex male, and 1,660 same-sex female households. 32.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.37.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Dallas
As of the census of 2000, the racial makeup of Dallas was 50.8% White
Even after Oswald was in custody, the media blamed the right for creating the climate that killed Kennedy. These beliefs had consequences. As Rick Perlstein, in his study of the Goldwater movement in 1964 stated, “Lee Harvey Oswald had cut down Goldwater’s chances as surely as he did John Kennedy.” And conspiracy nuts began their search for a more politically satisfying sniper.
To his credit, author Stephen King does accept that Oswald did it alone. But in a recent interview with Camelot merchant Chris Matthews on MSNBC, King reverted to the media’s “blame the Right first” school of assassination theories.
King said that right wingers in 1963 created the atmosphere of hate that ultimately killed Kennedy. Even when Matthews reminded him of the central thesis of his new novel “11/22/63,” that a far leftist killed Kennedy, King still stuck to the script.
He dismissed Oswald’s Marxism as merely the “product of a demented mind” and argued that what really motivated Oswald’s life was a desire for fame. King applied the atmosphere of right-wing hate then with now, and feared that once again a president would be struck down.
King claims that he delved deep into Oswald’s life while writing his new book. If true, then he should know Oswald was far from being an activated agent but was a careful planner. Right-wing hate did not propel him into joining the Marines or associate with Japanese communists while in uniform. Nor did a Bircher-like atmosphere frog walk him into defecting to the Soviet Union.
King should have not ventured beyond Oswald the “fame junkie” for every act he performed — attempting to join both the American Communist Party and the Troskyites, passing out pro-Castro leaflets in a naval yard, trying to get a visa into Communist Cuba, planning to hijack a plane to Cuba — was an attempt to elbow his way into history.
If there was an anti-Communist atmosphere that activated him, it centered around Kennedy’s attempts to kill Oswald’s beloved Fidel Castro. In one stroke, Oswald could satisfy his two twin passions: fame and helping the Cuban Revolution.
Most damning to his theory of the hate climate killing Kennedy is in how he portrays Oswald’s richest and best friend in Dallas, George De Mohrenschildt. The wealthy Mohrenschildt, a Castro supporter, encouraged Oswald to kill Kennedy and thus end the assassination attempts. If King wanted to provide fictional support for his beliefs, it might have been better to have Oswald listening to a right-winger preaching violence, and then, robotically, perform his own. But alas,in this case, fiction is more valid than King’s facts.
Texas was primarily a one party state—Democratic. However, there were two distinct factions, the liberals, controlled mostly by the unions and the conservative branch, which Connally came out of. The two branches fought each other in the primaries more furiously than today’s Republican and Democratic fights. Somehow in Orange County, the two factions had come together to support Connally.
A rift had developed between Gov. Connally and Sen. Ralph Yarborough, a far-to-the-left liberal and the darling of the labor forces, Yarborough was also a friend to Orange County.. Kennedy came to Texas to unite the two factions that threatened to split the state party. Because of the upcoming presidential election, he needed to heal the wounds.
But I still ponder all the events and circumstances surrounding the assassination and think of the odds against it.
"Did you shoot the President?" "Uh, No, nobody has told me that, nobody has charged me with that."
Slick man. Slick words. Lucky firing skills for him that day. But, payback was a b*tch as he was to find out two days after that. Still, I would have truly wanted a trial with him on the stand, no doubt about that. That was the great injustice.
How do you explain the bullet hole in the Lincoln’s windshield and the fact that a piece of Kennedy’s skull blew off to the back
Well, pardner, that just makes me wanna run down to the U-HAUL and get started on the move.
Hey, California, shut up and send us your jobs.
Whenever I feel masochistic and want to be buried by commie hubris and cow dung, I read the LA Times. Molly the LA Times scribbler, unfortunately, left her brain on a Dallas street and a stampede ran over it.
Isn't that always the case? Isn't it always the product of a demented mind?
They’re actually fine chaps. Too bad they’re not wearing any pants with them.
Hydrostatic pressure caused by the physical impact of the rifle bullet at a high speed into the cranium containing essentially a liquid (the brain, akin to water), and the fact that nerve movements (involuntary) could also account for the way he moved. It is not a surprise to me that he could be shot with a high powered rifle from the rear and still have a considerable portion of the skull from that area eject backward, even in the direction of the lone shooter. Ever sight and hit a watermelon from 250 feet with a 6.5x52mm Cartuccia Modello 1895 rimless cartridge via a Carcano? Believe me, you will see all kinds of ejecta going different directions that in and off themselves dont necessarily point to the shooter being in a certain position. Nope. Oswald did it. He had the smirk on his face upon being arrested, obviously proud of the two murders he had committed that day, with with a rifle and one with a snub nose .38 Special. He demanded his Communist attorney, John Abt. Lee was a nut. For what purposes we will never know. Politics? To feel important? Angry at Kennedy as he was at General Edwin Walker (whom he also popped off a shot at)? We could go on and on.
It is all stayed remarkably unchanged. The only thing I am aware of that has changed it the school book depository building now has a museum on the 6th floor and the building itself is now called the Dallas County Administration Building. There is a plaque on the ground on the grass next to where the X is on the road and I parked in a lot behind the wooden fence up the grassy knoll.
Thanks. Kinda shocking no name change - just a plaque - for such a major event- assassination of a President. Who knows, maybe they asked Jackie and she didn’t want his name on anything there. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they changed ‘Dallas’ to ‘Kennedy’. I remember that day. Everyone was a wreck - don’t think I came across a dry eye.
One more thing- That ‘x’ was where Connolly was shot? - They specifically say Connolly and don’t mention Kennedy?
Thanks, again, for the pictures and the info. They were interesting to see.
Thank you. Now you started a career in FR ‘internet travel’. I like it!
While it’s good to see there is some memorial but???? I don’t ‘get it’. But maybe that’s the point - I don’t get his assassination either. I think they could have done a much better job at a memorial than that. I guess the only thing that isn’t big in TX is ‘ideas/creativity’.
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