JFK – the aftermath of the assassination

Using Primary and Secondary Sources

• Primary sources are original materials. That is, the creator has personal experience with the subject. They are from the time period being studied.

• Secondary sources are created after the event. They discuss, re-use, re-tell information that has been found in primary sources. The creator does not have personal experience with the event but has talked to/read about/listened to people who do.

Primary Source: Lyndon Johnson being sworn in as President after Kennedy has died. Jacqueline is to his right. 22nd November 1963 – On board Air

Force One

• What do you observe from this photograph?

Primary Source: Photograph published in Lifetime taken on 22 November. What does this show about the reaction to Kennedy’s

death?

Public reaction in US to JFK’s death

• Many felt the loss personally.• People were shocked.• People had difficulty accepting Lyndon

Johnson as the new President.

Primary Source: PEOPLE IN NEW YORK REACT TO THE ASSASSINATION (Broadcast)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_qysmz-d-Y

Secondary Source: Mad Men depiction (television show)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXOJaz_S8ms

What we learn:

• From the primary source we learn that…• This is a reliable source because…/This is an

unreliable source because…• This is a useful source because…

• From the secondary source we learn…• This is a reliable source when used in

conjunction with…• This is a useful source because…

Lee Harvey Oswald (information from Retrospective 11)

• The Dallas Police Department arrested and then released several suspects.

• 1.50pm, 80 minutes after the assassination, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald in a cinema.

The Case

• Oswald worked in the Texas School Book Depository, people reported that shots had ben fired from there.

• They found a rifle and spent bullets on the sixth floor.• On Nov 22 he carried a long parcel to work.• A work colleague said he saw Oswald sitting on the 6th

floor, 35 minites before the assassination. • Dismissed from the Marine Corps for being “undesirable”.• Sources suggested he spoke Russian, lived in the Soviet

Union (Russia) for 3 years and attempted to gain Soviet Citizenship.

• Sources also said that he had tried to murder US General Edwin Walker and was a committed supporter of Fidel Castro (Cuban leader).

• Police believed he had killed policeman JD Tippit, an hour before his arrest.

No Trial

• There was never a trial.• 24 November 1963 police were transporting

Oswald to the County Jail. They were in a basement car park when Jack Ruby, a Dallas Night club owner, came forward and shot Oswald in the stomach.

• Oswald died in surgery.• He was buried on 25 November 1963, the same

day as JFK.