Schmidt finally adds that he personally sold a hell of a lot more life insurance after he became publicly associated with the Adlai Stevenson incident. In Dallas, being an outspoken conservative is apparently good for business.
Weissman finally agrees to put his name on the full-page ad.
He and Schmidt realize that they need to have some sort of organization associated with the ad. So they invent one: the American Fact-Finding Committee, with Bernard Weissman as chairman.
As Weissman talks with the ad people at the Morning News, he strikes them as a little nervous and jumpy. An advertising man is asking him for the name of the organization Weissman represents.
Weissman pauses.
He can’t recall the name. Shrugging apologetically, he begins digging through his pockets. Finally, he finds the scrap of paper he’d written the name on. He pulls it out, reads it quickly, and announces: “The American Fact-Finding Committee.”
The ad people finish collecting the necessary information and give Weissman a receipt for his $1,000 deposit. Weissman listens as the man tells him that all political advertisements must be reviewed by the paper’s executives. If the ad is approved, he can return in two days to pay the remainder of the balance.
A provocative political ad like this will most likely go all the way to the top floor, to Dealey’s office.
General Walker is among the two hundred or so people assembled in the ballroom of the Baker Hotel on November 18 for a talk by Alabama Governor George Wallace.
He is listening attentively to one of his favorite politicians in America—but Walker is also aware that he will have to leave Dallas, and soon, well before Kennedy arrives. Tomorrow, he is scheduled to fly to Mississippi and meet with white supremacists and KKK members in Hattiesburg. That city has been on the front lines of the civil rights movement in recent months: Only twelve of the seventy-five hundred eligible African Americans in the county have been allowed to register to vote, while white registration is close to 100 percent.
Wallace would approve of Walker’s mission in Mississippi. A year earlier, Wallace won his race for governor, and at his inauguration he proclaimed: “I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” In June, Wallace stood in a doorway to prevent black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama. He stepped aside only after Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard—and not before Wallace read a fiery statement on states’ rights to assembled television cameras.
Wallace is the rising star on America’s far right, and he’s chosen Dallas as the perfect place to make a special announcement: He is going to run for president against John Kennedy.
He has picked Dallas to launch his campaign for a very simple reason: Dallas is the financial and public relations headquarters for America’s ultra-conservatives.
“People all over the nation are aroused by the implications of the Kennedy civil rights legislation,” Wallace tells Walker and the others in the Dallas audience. “People all over the country are just as disturbed as we are and they are going to do something about it… The American people are going to save this country next year.”18
As Wallace warms up, he begins denouncing Robert Kennedy’s Justice Department: “It is vitally necessary that the people know exactly to what extent the Justice Department civil rights attorneys have consorted with, aided and abetted the flood of beatniks, sex perverts, narcotics addicts and common criminals who have invaded Alabama as so-called civil rights workers.”19
Suddenly, a loud crashing sound is heard in the ballroom.
Wallace ducks instinctively.
There is momentary confusion. It takes everyone a few seconds to register what has just happened.
A TV newsman was filming General Walker as he listened to Wallace.
Walker suddenly jerked to his feet and knocked the camera out of the newsman’s hands. Then he shoved the astonished reporter, who fell back onto a group of guests seated at another table, sending glasses, silverware, and dishes crashing to the floor.
The ballroom is stone silent as everyone takes in the scene.
Walker, all eyes on him, nods curtly at Wallace.
“I beg your pardon,” the general says, taking his seat.
On November 19, Dealey’s Dallas Morning News announces the Kennedy motorcade route on the front page. The President and First Lady will travel along Main Street and then exit downtown beneath the triple underpass. The map makes it clear that Kennedy will pass by Dealey Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository.
There is other news: a new city ordinance designed to crack down on the sorts of protests that greeted Adlai Stevenson. The clear intent is to protect the president during his upcoming visit. The ordinance prohibits demonstrators from “interfering with a public or private assembly by the use of insulting, threatening or obscene language or intimidation.” The city attorney tells reporters: “This also gives the police the right to disperse a group and break up a demonstration.”20
On the top floors of the newspaper building, Ted Dealey has spent the last few months preparing to step aside from his post at the paper. He has named his son Joe as president of the company. And with that title, Joe would typically review political advertisements in advance of publication. But today, Joe is at a conference in Miami, and many of the other top executives are also out of town. The old man, Ted Dealey, is on call when it comes time to review the WELCOME MR. KENNEDY advertisement from Bernard Weissman’s American Fact-Finding Committee.
Dealey reads the copy, and he approves—very much.
The advertisement, as far as he can see, matches exactly what his paper has been saying about the president for years.
Bernard Weissman meets again with the advertising men at the Dallas Morning News. Weissman learns that his ad has been approved, and he pays the remaining balance—$462—in cash. Weissman also has a late item to insert into the advertisement. Joe Grinnan, the oilman who raised the money for the ad, brought him a scrap of paper earlier and said: “This has to go in. Go back and have them change the ad.”
A twelfth question has been added to the list. This one refers to the recent executions of Diem and Nhu in Vietnam.
The newspaper adman promises to add the new material. He also has a mock-up of the advertisement. As the men view the ad, Weissman is underwhelmed. There’s nothing really eye-catching about the rows of plain text. There’s nothing to stop people from simply turning the page. He and the man begin discussing design changes. They agree to set WELCOME MR. KENNEDY in bigger, bolder letters across the top.
But the ad still needs something else.
Finally, Weissman figures out what it is. He suggests adding a black border to the ad. The adman tries out a one-eighth-inch border. Weissman asks him to make it even more grand. Then the adman creates a quarter-inch border. Weissman is pleased.
It doesn’t occur to him until later that the black border mimics the black borders used for death notices.21
General Walker is in New Orleans on November 20, where he plans to spend the next two days. He has no public events scheduled. Instead, he arrives at the National American Bank building downtown for a meeting with Judge Leander Perez, a cigar-twirling local political boss who is one of America’s most notorious racists. Perez has described the civil rights movement as the work of “all those Jews who were supposed to have been cremated at Buchenwald and Dachau but weren’t.” He describes Negroes as animals “right out of the jungle.” Perez has not only incited riots against African Americans, but also organized reprisals against white parents who have allowed their children to attend integrated schools.22
This is not Walker’s first meeting with a notorious racist. In late October, after the Adlai Stevenson riot in Dallas, he traveled to Brandon, Mississippi. He visited with Byron De La Beckwith, the man who has been arrested for murdering civil rights leader Medgar Evers. Walker later told the press that he extended his “best wishes” to Beckwith, describing the prisoner as “in good spirits and very cou
rageous.”23
In New Orleans, Walker spends several hours visiting with Judge Perez before he adjourns to the massive Jung Hotel on Canal Street. There he meets privately with another thirty-five ultra-conservative political leaders. The gathering continues until well past midnight. Walker plans another series of meetings for the following day.
A light rain is falling outside the White House on November 21 as John F. Kennedy carefully adjusts his back brace in his bedroom. A very long day is ahead of him, and he knows that his back will be aching by the end of it. In a couple of hours he will leave for Texas, taking along his wife, his staff, a contingent of thirteen Texas congressmen, and a planeload of reporters. His press secretary, Pierre Salinger, won’t be able to accompany him on this trip because he is scheduled to fly to Tokyo. Normally Andrew Hatcher, Salinger’s second in command, would replace him. But Hatcher is African American, and the Kennedy team knows that a black spokesman won’t help their political efforts in Texas. Instead, a press aide named Malcolm Duff is assigned to make the trip with the president.
Kennedy knots his dark blue tie, fastening his PT boat clip into place. Once he finishes lacing his shoes, he inspects his appearance in the mirror. His face still has a boyish quality, but the presidency is quickly aging him. His reddish brown hair is increasingly showing strands of gray, and the wrinkles in his face are growing more pronounced. His eyes, always alert with curiosity and intelligence, also bear a hint of sadness.
Walking to the door, he calls out for his children, Caroline and John, who come running to see him. Caroline is outfitted in a blue leotard and a dark blue velvet dress. John is wearing plaid shorts. Early mornings are usually their special time with their father. Today, Jackie is busy having her hair done, and so Kennedy and the children have breakfast together. He half listens to their chatter—both children are excited about their upcoming birthdays—as he scans the morning papers, occasionally pausing to gently tease them.
At nine fifteen, the children’s British nanny, Maud Shaw, arrives. It is time for Caroline to go off to school. She runs over to hug her father good-bye. “I love you, Daddy,” she says. John goes off reluctantly with his nanny, but his father promises that he will get to ride in the helicopter later in the morning.
Kennedy then makes his way to the Oval Office, where he meets with two U.S. ambassadors and conducts other business. He learns that the updated weather forecasts in Texas are calling for unseasonably warm temperatures. Mrs. Kennedy has already painstakingly selected and packed an assortment of woolen winter outfits. The president is annoyed. It is too late to change now, so they’ll just have to make the best of it. He really wants this first campaign trip with Jackie to be a success. His political instincts tell him that she will be a great asset on the campaign trail.
Before leaving the Oval Office, Kennedy reviews his speech for Dallas. He calls in his adviser, Ted Sorensen, for a final consultation. The two men have been working on it together for the past week, trading drafts back and forth. Sorensen brings in the latest draft and waits as the president reads it. Kennedy is pleased. The address will be a ringing defense of his record. It will also directly challenge the reactionary forces in Dallas:
Ignorance and misinformation can handicap the progress of a city or a company, but they can, if allowed to prevail in foreign policy, handicap this country’s security. In a world of complex and continuing problems, in a world full of frustrations and irritations, America’s leadership must be guided by the lights of learning and reason—or else those who confuse rhetoric with reality and the plausible with the possible will gain the popular ascendancy with their seemingly swift and simple solutions to every world problem.
There will always be dissident voices heard in the land, expressing opposition without alternatives, finding fault but never favor, perceiving gloom on every side and seeking influence without responsibility. Those voices are inevitable…
We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will “talk sense to the American people.” But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense. And the notion that this Nation is headed for defeat through deficit, or that strength is but a matter of slogans, is nothing but just plain nonsense.
Kennedy nods approvingly as he finishes reading.
“It’s good,” he tells Sorensen.
But then he begins to worry that perhaps the speech is too serious. He suggests adding a joke or two to break the tension. Sorensen takes the papers back and promises to find some jokes.24
It is now 10:45 a.m. and three helicopters are waiting at the White House helipad to carry Kennedy and his entourage to Andrews Air Force Base. The president and his son climb into Helicopter One along with JFK’s secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, three Secret Service agents, and General Ted Clifton, a military aide. White House staff and pool reporters pile into Helicopters Two and Three.
Everyone is ready to leave, but one person is missing. The president sits anxiously in the helicopter, nervously tapping his fingers on his right knee. His days are scheduled in minutes, not hours. Still no Jackie. Finally, he speaks to General Clifton and Secret Service Agent Clint Hill: “See if she’s waiting over there.”
The two men dash back to the White House, find Jackie, and bring her out to the helicopter.25
Soon, at Andrews Air Force Base, the parents hug John Jr. good-bye.
“I want to come,” the boy tells his father, beginning to cry.
“You can’t,” Kennedy says softly.
The president kisses his son again and pats him gently. Then he speaks to Agent Bob Foster, who will be helping watch over John while his parents are away.
“You take care of John, Mr. Foster,” Kennedy says.
Final security preparations are being made for the presidential luncheon at the Trade Mart. Secret Service agents have asked for and received a list of key personnel working the event—the caterers, the cooks, the food handlers, the waiters, maids, porters. Even the organist at tomorrow’s luncheon will receive a background check.
Some five thousand yellow roses are being brought to the Trade Mart as table decorations. Every single rose will be checked to ensure that it does not contain any explosives. The menu for the Friday meal includes steak. President Kennedy and all other Catholics attending the luncheon have received a special dispensation from the church allowing them to eat beef on that day. The president’s steak will be selected at random from the thousands of meals being cooked.
Elsewhere in Dallas, cheaply printed handbills are appearing on car windshields downtown and at local universities.
The flyers are designed to look like WANTED posters, only the face they show is that of the president of the United States. Kennedy is depicted in a front view and a profile view, just like a police mug shot. Underneath the photos, in large type, the flyers read WANTED FOR TREASON, beneath which two columns of text explain the charges:
THIS MAN is wanted for treasonous activities against the United States:
1. Betraying the Constitution (which he swore to uphold): He is turning the sovereignty of the U.S. over to the communist controlled United Nations.
He is betraying our friends (Cuba, Katanga, Portugal) and befriending our enemies (Russia, Yugoslavia, Poland).
2. He has been WRONG on innumerable issues affecting the security of the U.S. (United Nations—Berlin wall—Missile removal—Cuba—Wheat deals—Test Ban Treaty, etc.)
3. He has been lax in enforcing Communist Registration laws.
4. He has given support and encouragement to the Communist inspired racial riots.
5. He has illegally invaded a sovereign State with federal troops.
6. He has consistently appointed Anti-Christians to Federal office; Upholds the Supreme Court in its Anti-Christian rulings. Aliens and known Communists abound in Federal offices.
7. He has been caught in fantastic LIES to the American people (including personal ones like his previous marriage and divorce).
The day before Kennedy is
scheduled to land in Dallas, Juanita Craft announces she is planning a new kind of civil rights protest: She will hold a “Bombingham Tea” two days after Kennedy leaves Dallas.
It is a play on words, a nod to the nightmare that unfolded in September in Birmingham, Alabama, when four young girls were killed after a bomb exploded one Sunday at the 16th Street Baptist Church. The event led Craft into immediate action—she held prayer rallies, vigils, in honor of the young women. They could have been her kids, her young people, the ones she essentially adopted in Dallas. It could have happened in Dallas.
She knows there was a bomb scare when Dr. King came to Dallas several months ago. She lived in the South Dallas areas in the early 1950s when white neighborhoods were being integrated, when Dallas made national news for its string of bombings against blacks. She could have gone to be a teacher in some small, all-black town in Texas. It might have been safer. But she stayed in Dallas.
Now, with the president coming to the city, she feels like she has to do something to make a statement—and she has always held teas, socials, dances, bake sales, and get-togethers to raise money for the Dallas Youth Council of the NAACP to take trips to the national NAACP conventions. She contacted the ministers at Warren Methodist Church and asked if they were willing to allow several of her high school students to stage the “Bombingham Tea”: There will be music, freedom songs, voter registration literature, displays devoted to a Stay In School project, and fund-raising for next spring’s bus trip to the NAACP national convention in Washington, DC.
Craft never really tells people that her mother was a mulatto, a mixture of English, Indian, and Negro. But the older she gets, the more she has been thinking about the blood coursing through her veins. She is, of course, of African descent. But she is more than black. By now she realizes that she owes just as much allegiance to the English and the Indians as the Africans. She is fully integrated, from within. She is everything the racists fear.26
Dallas 1963 Page 29
