Quiet Solidarity and Theft: Remembering JFK at Trinity

Though President Kennedy’s assassination was an event that rattled the consciousness of the nation before even some of our parents were born, I doubt you could find any student on campus who can’t visualize the Zapruder Film. I still cringe when I see Jackie, prim in a pink pillbox, crawling along the back of the car, so it’s difficult for me to imagine what people must have been feeling in the immediate aftermath.

In the spirit of remembrance, I turned to the library archives to see how Trinity responded to the assassination; at first I was surprised by how little information there seemed to be. Because JFK was shot on Friday afternoon, that day’s issue of the Trinitonian had already been published. Then (just like this year) Thanksgiving fell the next week, which meant Trinity had to wait until the 6th of December to address the President’s death. It’s clear that by the end of the two week interim-which students and faculty no doubt spent reflecting with their friends and family-everyone had gotten to the business of pulling themselves together and starting over. While there is a brief but affectionate tribute on the front page and an editorial discussing a memorial flame being erected at the Alamo, most articles in this issue deal with the typical: on-campus events, pre-registration, parties, greek life. There is nothing to be discerned about student sentiment, and it seemed to me that a facet of our Trinity history was lost. I was disappointed.

Having given up, I started absently scanning the shorter articles and untitled sound bites. There, to my delight, was what I had been looking for. It seems that the red, white and blue decorations that had been purchased for Trinity’s Homecoming (an event cancelled in light of the shooting) had been filched by students and used to decorate their dorm buildings. Memorial pictures of the President, which had been placed in the Student Government Office also mysteriously vanished. I should have guessed, of course. There is no mention of politics, no finger-pointing or vitriol, just quiet solidarity. And theft.Though the article was meant as an admonishment, a call for the pilfered items to be returned before Student Council was forced to foot the bill for rented materials, I have to admit I was a little proud.

--Kate Cuellar ‘15

--If you found this post interesting, please explore the Trinitonian archive here: http://lib.trinity.edu/lib2/dig_coll.php in the library’s digital collections.

Or visit Special Collections and Archives on the second floor of the library to take a look at some of our Kennedy ephemera!