In celebration of the upcoming 100th birthday of former president John F. Kennedy, the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics will host a yearlong series of events and presentations exploring the legacy of JFK.
“President Kennedy remains one of the most admired men of the 20th century, and it is right and proper that we observe the 100th anniversary of his birth with a look back at his life and an examination of his living legacy,” Politics Prof. and Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato said in a release. “Today, when Americans are deeply divided about politics, perhaps we can learn some lessons about leadership that once united us.”
The program, titled JFK100, will include seminars and exhibitions open to the general public. More than 300 never-before-seen photos of the president and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, are scheduled to be released to the public for the first time this February.
Similar public exhibitions will continue through October 2017. Among other events, the Center for Politics will host a panel delving into the nature of Kennedy’s participation in the civil rights movement, a 100th birthday celebration at U.Va. Reunions and a display of previously-sealed records relating to the Kennedy assassination. Official dates for these events will be released at a later time.
The events have taken several months to plan, said Kyle Kondik, director of communications for the center and managing director of Sabato’s Crystal Ball.
Sabato will host a seminar in the Rotunda exploring the legacy of Kennedy’s life, with noteworthy guest speakers including Buell Frazier, who drove Lee Harvey Oswald to work the morning of Kennedy’s assassination, Sid Davis, an Air Force One pool reporter when Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into office and Edward Nixon, the brother of former President Richard Nixon.
“It’s a combination of experts and people who lived through that era, some of whom we’ve had at the University before,” Kondik said. “We’ve also partnered with other entities within the University.”
According to a release, PBS is working with the Center for Politics to create a national television documentary following up on the Center’s 2013 Emmy-winning release, “The Kennedy Half-Century.” This documentary is currently in production.
“We did a number of programs related to the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination back in 2013,” Kondik said. “We decided to revisit the topic in 2017 for what would have been Kennedy’s 100th birthday. It’s a good opportunity for us to build on some of the programs we started in 2013.”
Kondik said the role of religion in Kennedy’s election and the topic of his assassination makes the 35th president an intriguing focus of a yearlong program.
“We wanted to look at different aspects of the Kennedy presidency, Kennedy is a perpetually interesting person in American life,” Kondik said. “And Kennedy, his life was cut short, his assassination remains something of great interest to a lot of people. We thought we should revisit the topic.”
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