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Donald Uhrbrock/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image
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At 12: 30 pm Friday November 22nd President John
F Kennedy was shot and killed by an assassin while his open motorcade drove
through the streets of Dallas Texas.
Later that same day Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the
murder of a Dallas police officer. He was charged with the assassination of
Kennedy and the murder of officer Tippit later that night.
As fate would have it, Oswald would never face a jury for
these crimes. Two days later while being transported to another jail in Dallas he
was shot and killed by Dallas night club owner Jack Ruby.
In 1964 the Warren commission concluded that Oswald acted
alone. This image, which was taken by Oswald’s wife in the spring of 1963, was
a key piece of evidence linking Oswald to the assassination. It would prove to be
one of the most significant events in the United States in the latter half of
the 20th century.
The death of Kennedy was a watershed event in American
society. It signaled the end of the prosperous 50’s and the beginning of the
turbulent 60's.
In the 50 years since the assassination a whole slew of
conspiracy theories have cropped up around this particular event. Everyone from
the phone company, to communists, the CIA to organized crime figures have been
implicated in the murder of Kennedy at one time or another. According to a
Gallup poll from November of 2013, 61% of Americans still believe that someone
other than Oswald killed the president on that fateful day in Dallas. In other
words, they believe it was a conspiracy.
This photograph is at the heart of many of the conspiracies.
Even though many experts have concluded that the image is real, there are those
who have found inconsistencies within the photo. The shadows are not right they
claim. They site one thing or another in the photo is a tell in their opinion.
As a historian and photographer I love the duality of
perception that such images can create in the minds of people. How can two
different people look upon the same image and see two very different things?
Our minds, our hearts, our life experiences, and our biases skew our
perspective in many ways, but no more than examples like this.
Our history reveals much about us as a society. How we see
ourselves our government and those around us goes a long way to explain how
each of us see that history.
So long as there is a vacuum of information surrounding the
assassination of John F Kennedy, humans will fill it with things they think
makes sense, and this image will continue to be a big part that process.
What does the image say to you?
Michael,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is fabulous. There was so much interesting information, and your take on it drew me in. I think you should take the plunge and move forward. For my blog I am currently reading and listening to an audio presentation entitled, "Do what you love, the money will follow." I think it was written for people like us with creative minds and ideals. If you haven't heard of it already, you should check it out, and who knows, you may be in your dream profession very shortly.