Source: University of Maryland, College Park

Released: Mon 10-Nov-2003, 12:00 ET  Printer-friendly Version

The Kennedy Assassination - 40 Years Later

Newswise — 40 years ago, on November 22nd, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while visiting Dallas, Texas. For those who lived through that event, it was a time of sadness and great fear of the unknown. 40 years later, the passage of time has allowed many to take a thorough look at the Kennedy presidency and its legacy.

Then - Senator Kennedy visited the University of Maryland twice. According to Maryland's MAC to Millennium archives:

His first visit was on April 27, 1959, when he was the featured speaker at spring convocation; speaking to a crowd of over 5,000, he encouraged the students to consider entering politics and to work to solve the problems of the nation. A little more than a year later, Senator Kennedy was back at the University of Maryland, on May 14, 1960, to attend a rally supporting his campaign for the presidency.

Researchers in the Washington, DC area who are interested in looking at the coverage of the Kennedy assassination have a tremendous resource at Maryland's McKeldin Library, which houses a microfilm collection of newspaper coverage from those dark days of November 22 through the 26th.

Maryland also has the experts you need to provide the analysis and perspective for your coverage of John F. Kennedy, his legacy and impact.

JFK's Historical Legacy

Keith Olson - professor of history, University of Maryland.
Expertise - 20th century presidential history; Watergate; U.S. history from 1865.
Credentials - Professor Olson has published two books, including The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges, which was runner-up for the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize of the Organization of American Historians. He has also published numerous articles and has just completed a book about Watergate. His current research project is about President Eisenhower and civil rights.


JFK's Assassination and its Political and Psychological Impact
James Glass - professor of government and politics, University of Maryland.
Expertise - political psychology and theory; political action and political morality; politics and film.
Credentials - named a distinguished scholar-teacher in 2002. The author of numerous articles. Prof. Glass is currently looking at what the psychological preconditions are for engagement with civil society.

JFK's Political Rhetoric
Shawn J. Parry-Giles - professor of communication, women's studies; director, Center for Political Communication and Civic Leadership, University of Maryland.
Expertise - teaches and studies historical and contemporary political discourse as well as rhetorical, feminist, and media criticism. Her current projects examine the rhetorical presidency and presidential image construction in addition to the news media's coverage of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Credentials - author of numerous articles. Her books include The Rhetorical Presidency, Propaganda, and the Cold War, 1945-1955

Trevor Parry-Giles - professor of political communication, University of Maryland.
Expertise - presidential rhetoric, political strategy and advertising
Credentials - former political consultant; co-authored Constructing Clinton: Hyperreality and Presidential Image-Making in Postmodern Politics

Web site - http://www.wam.umd.edu/~tpg/index.html

JFK and the Media
Haynes Johnson - professor and Knight Chair, Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland.
Expertise - internationally known journalist who has lived in Washington, DC since 1957. He has covered every presidential race since 1960 and has written books about every president from Kennedy (The Bay of Pigs: The Leaders' Story of Brigade 2506) to Clinton.
Credentials - Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, national television and radio commentator, best-selling author and Washington Post veteran.

Douglas Gomery - professor, Philip Merrill College of Journalism; scholar-in-residence at the Library of American Broadcasting, University of Maryland.
Expertise - the history and economics of the mass media in America.
Credentials - Prof. Gomery is the author of 10 books and more than 600 articles covering the economics and history of the mass media. He has written for publications including the Baltimore Sun, Village Voice and Woodrow Wilson Quarterly.