Forty Years Later, Kennedy’s Legacy Is Still Being Shaped

Newswise — On Sept. 10, 2001, Temple history professor Jim Hilty was trying to convey to the students in his course "The JFK Assassination: A Problem of Historical Analysis" how the nation felt the day John F. Kennedy was killed. On Sept. 11, they understood. "On both days you knew that as of that moment nothing would ever be the same," says Hilty, author of John F. Kennedy: An Idealist Without Illusion. And while Kennedy's death remains a watershed event in history, his legacy is still being debated. "Conservatives have done a pretty good job of tarnishing his legacy so that now he's viewed by many as this young president who screwed around," says Hilty. "There's this notion that if you tear down Kennedy the man you can tear down the ideas he stood for. But the fact remains that he inspired a generation of young people to get involved. The activism of the 1960s and sense of aspiring to greatness seen in the space program, for example, can all be tied into the Kennedy legacy." Reach Dr. Hilty through NMR, 215-204-7476.