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Dallas’ JFK museum to oversee Dealey Plaza events for 50th anniversary
of assassination
By DAVID FLICK Staff Writer dflick@dallasnews.com
Published: 30 October 2011 11:38 PM
For the past few months, officials at the adjacent Sixth Floor Museum
have been quietly at work, trying to ensure that what those cameras
capture won’t embarrass the city.
For one thing, they have been conducting a campaign to raise $2.2
million to complete the restoration of Dealey Plaza in time for the 50th
anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
And to avoid the carnival atmosphere that has often prevailed at
previous anniversaries on the plaza, museum officials are planning to
take over commemoration activities there.
“We have reserved Dealey Plaza for that date,” said Nicola Longford, the
museum’s executive director. “I think, for the 50th anniversary, we have
an opportunity to offer a dignified, appropriate event for the city of
Dallas.”
That has not always been the case.
Many people assume the annual gatherings at the plaza — which have
attracted hundreds and, in some years, thousands of spectators — have
had some official sanction. But the museum’s decision actually reverses
a hands-off policy by both the museum and the city of Dallas that has
lasted decades.
Only once before, when the plaza was dedicated as a National Historic
Landmark district in 1993, has there been an official ceremony
commemorating the assassination.
Museum and city officials have said in the past that by avoiding such
events, they were honoring the Kennedy family’s wishes that the
anniversary receive no official recognition in Dallas.
In the organizational vacuum that resulted, ordinary people who came to
the plaza to quietly honor the slain president found activities there
often dominated by conspiracy theorists, performance artists and
assorted publicity-seekers.
Critics charged that on what should be a solemn day, a circus atmosphere
has sometimes prevailed on the plaza.
“I don’t think we know yet what will take place. It may be simply a
moment of silence,” Longford said of the 50th anniversary commemoration.
“It will absolutely not be a festival. It will be a dignified and
appropriate commemoration.”
Museum officials have been working with some of the city’s cultural
institutions to help commemorate the event, but Longford said such talks
were in the early stages and declined to elaborate.
She said museum officials contacted the John F. Kennedy Library
Foundation, chaired by Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline, about the decision
to conduct an official commemoration in Dealey Plaza.
Longford declined to characterize the reaction, but added, “I don’t
think the Kennedy family has changed their stand.”
In response to a request for comment by The Dallas Morning News, a
foundation spokesman emailed a brief statement that officials of the
Kennedy Presidential Library and Kennedy Library Foundation were still
in the early stages of planning, “but how others choose to mark the
anniversary will be up to them.”
Among those supporting the museum’s takeover of the ceremonies — perhaps
surprisingly — is Debra Conway, president of JFK Lancer, the
organization that for most of the past two decades has held the speaking
permit for the plaza on the anniversary.
“I’m kind of glad,” she said of the museum’s plans. “I don’t think a lot
of those things that have happened will happen when the museum takes
over. I think they’ll have a ceremony that won’t get out of hand.”
Conway describes her Southlake-based organization as a clearinghouse for
information on the JFK assassination and other topics.
She acknowledges that representatives affiliated with her group have
used the commemorations to espouse conspiracy theories. But she said the
comments were respectful, and she blamed any inappropriate behavior on
other participants.
Despite having reserved the plaza, she said, her group has had no power
to enforce who speaks.
“We’ve tried to stop them and they ignore us,” she said.
Museum officials are hoping that the fundraising drive to upgrade Dealey
Plaza will also help project a better image of the city.
“When they broadcast from the plaza, we don’t want Dallas to be
embarrassed by what they see in the background,” Longford said.
The work was envisioned as the second phase in the restoration of the
plaza, which has deteriorated over the decades. The $500,000 to complete
the first phase came from a 2003 bond issue.
Phase I restored the fountains and peristyles along Houston Street, the
most visible part of the plaza. The partial restoration may have worked
too well, according to Willis Winters, assistant director of capital
projects for the Dallas Park and Recreation Department.
“Phase II was never included in the 2006 bond program, probably because
what we did in 2003 looked so good,” he said.
The city has pledged to kick in $750,000 for the second phase, which
will improve paving, lighting, irrigation and signs, and — in the most
visible change — will restore the pergolas on top of the grassy knoll.
Phillip Jones, CEO of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau, said
JFK assassination anniversaries have always posed a challenge to people
trying to draw visitors to the region.
The assassination is among the darkest days in the city’s history. On
the other hand, there is no doubting that Dealey Plaza is a major
tourist draw.
“I think it’s a balancing act,” he said. “I think the Sixth Floor Museum
can celebrate the life of the president, but we’ll have to be very
selective on how we promote it.”
The 50th anniversary will also mark a kind of watershed, he said. After
five decades, the death of President John F. Kennedy is passing from
being a personal memory to becoming a purely historical event.
“One of the things we need to do is to educate the younger generation,”
Jones said. “I think it allows us to position ourselves as a new city,
very different from what it was 50 years ago.
“There’s an opportunity there we haven’t had in a while.”
WHAT’S NEXT? Honoring JFK
Over the next two years, the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza will:
•Oversee a $2.2 million campaign to finish the restoration of Dealey Plaza.
•Plan details of the 50th anniversary commemoration on Nov. 22, 2013.
•Discuss the participation of major Dallas cultural institutions.
Other efforts
•Officials at Love Field, where Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president
aboard Air Force One, are planning to have a historical panel about the
event erected by spring 2013.
•A memorial garden honoring President John F. Kennedy is planned for the
new Parkland Memorial Hospital, opening in 2014 or early 2015.
SOURCES: Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, City of Dallas Office of
Aviation; Parkland Foundation
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