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And they are, as President Kennedy said to us, “I sometimes think we are too much impressed by the clamor of daily events. These events that we are privileged to discuss with you today are very, very important events in our nation’s life. ĮLAINE JONES: Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of this illustrious panel and myself, we are very pleased to be a part of this program with you this afternoon. So please join me in giving a hearty Boston welcome to Elaine Jones and to the panelists who will help us to better understand the civil rights events and decisions of 1963. She is, I can tell you, a person with a vision, a plan, and some sort of an internal mechanism that causes her to be constantly running, doing, thinking, and accomplishing at an amazingly fast pace. She has had an amazing career as a litigator and civil rights activist. Jones, as you can see from your program, is head of that magnificent law firm, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. Our moderator this afternoon is Elaine Jones. And finally, Vivian Malone Jones, one of the two African Americans admitted to the University of Alabama in 1963, cannot be here because her husband has been critically ill. Judy Richardson has been called to South Africa on business, but we're pleased to have Reverend Prathia Hall to represent the SNCC perspective on the panel. Jack Greenberg will not be here he called me from Paris last night and his plane flight was cancelled. He received, as you know, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in January, but while he wanted to be here, his doctor said it simply was impossible. I spoke to him last month his voice is still very vibrant and booming, and he desperately wanted to come. James Farmer, as many of you know, had a fairly serious medical setback. There are several changes in the lineup of speakers from the program that most of you originally got.
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And we have representatives of the media who went beyond their minimum obligations of telling the American people what was happening because they, too, believed deeply in the purpose of the changes being sought. We have members of the Kennedy Administration who were grappling with the unprecedented and uncharted historical opportunities generated by this great public upheaval. We have people who were in the trenches, almost literally, in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and the other states where the demonstrations of protest were taking place. To help us in doing this, we have assembled a panel representing, I think, a very good cross section of the people who caused things to happen in 1963, as well as in the years before and after. We gather to use all of our faculties for historical analysis in trying to appreciate just what the threads are that tie us today to those events and decisions of 1963, and yes, to the men and women who made it all happen. We gather to learn, to ponder, and to think about the purpose of what happened in America 35 years ago. STEWART: We gather here today to remember, as The Boston Globeeditorial put it so aptly this morning, to remember a revolution. This is a film very appropriately shown in the Kennedy Library exhibit on the Oval Office. We begin our proceedings today by watching a brief video of scenes from civil rights events of 1963. It’s always good to know that what we do in this hall will be shared by thousands if not, I guess, millions of people throughout the country, and maybe throughout the world. Secondly, we welcome C-SPAN to the Kennedy Library once more. However, we have, as you know, scheduled a very substantial break in the middle of the program and all of the panelists will be available for your individual questions at that time, and there'll be some refreshments out in the lobby. And for these reasons, there probably will not be time for audience questions. We have, as you know, a very, very big topic and a large panel of speakers. JOHN STEWART: Good afternoon, I’m John Stewart, Director of Education at the Kennedy Library, and I want to welcome all of you to our symposium this afternoon.įirst, a very brief word about the format of the program today.