#john f kennedy's rocking chair

[tedkennedyswife]

November 15, 1964 -Joan Kennedy stands behind President John F. Kennedys famed rocking chair at opening of an exhibit in Frankfurt, Germany. Mrs. Kennedy officiated at the opening of an exhibit of mementoes of the late president, which previously were shown in Dublin, Ireland.

[mariacallous]

When Democratic senators convened for a private luncheon on Thursday, all eyes were on Sen. Bob Menendez. The hard-nosed and hawkish New Jersey Democrat, a longtime heavyweight in congressional foreign policy, has faced a wave of calls from his own party to resign. It comes in the wake of a damning indictment alleging he secretly worked to advance the interests of a foreign power, Egypt, in exchange for bribes, and sought to influence criminal charges against businessmen involved in the scheme.

Menendez, who has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to the charges, had to give up his gavel as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee after the indictment was released last week. Going into the luncheon, he had two options: accede to the demands of the majority of Democratic senators calling on him to resign, or dig in his heels and fight.

To the surprise of no one who knows him, Menendez chose to fight.

During the meeting, according to two people with direct knowledge of it, Menendez doubled down on what he said in public: He is innocent of the charges and has no plans to step down. His defense appeared to win him no new allies. Sen. Chris Coons, another Democratic foreign-policy heavyweight who also chairs the Ethics Committee, left the luncheon when Menendez got up to speak. So did two other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Brian Schatz, according to the people briefed on the matter. None of the nearly 30 Democratic senators who called on him to resign have backtracked.

Menendez’s defiant stand at the congressional luncheon offered a glimpse into the political fallout from the indictment, and a foretaste of major changes in one of the most historic and vaunted institutions in Congress, with significant implications for U.S. foreign policy.

Foreign Policy spoke with more than a dozen current and former staffers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as lawmakers and outside experts on the fallout of the indictment and what it means for Congress and the Biden administration’s agenda. Menendez’s office did not respond to a request for comment or interview.

The first is that the scandal has rocked a vaunted committee with a storied legacy in foreign policy, and one that has served as a relative bastion of bipartisanship and stability while the rest of Washington descends into hyper-partisan rancor. The committee has produced eight U.S. presidents and 19 secretaries of state, from Andrew Jackson to John F. Kennedy to Joe Biden. Its cadre of professional staff has gone on to leading roles in the State Department and Pentagon, including Antony Blinken, Biden’s secretary of state, whose job as Democratic staff director on the committee spring-boarded his rise.

Lawmakers and staffers alike say they are stunned and saddened by the revelations outlined in the indictment. “There’s no way other than to say the allegations against Sen. Menendez are horrific,” Sen. Ben Cardin, who succeeded Menendez as chairman of the committee, told reporters before the luncheon on Thursday. “That is extremely challenging for all of us here.”

The charges against Menendez and his wife directly implicate his work on the committee, including allegations that he shared a confidential blueprint of the U.S. Embassy in Egypt’s staffing rosters with an Egyptian businessman through his wife, who then forwarded it to Egyptian officials. “Such tasking by the Egyptians would be consistent with classic modus operandi in a recruitment operation,” Asha Rangappa, a former senior FBI official, and Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior CIA official, wrote in Just Security.

The indictment also alleges that Menendez provided advance notice of non-public information on the release of U.S. military aid to Egypt and even ghost-wrote a letter for the government of Egypt requesting more U.S. military aid. The FBI has reportedly launched a counterintelligence probe into whether Egyptian intelligence services were involved in the alleged scheme, according to NBC News. 

Menendez has in the past week repeatedly insisted that the allegations are false. Menendez was previously charged with corruption, but those charges ended in a mistrial in 2017, and his message to his colleagues and supporters was that he overcame corruption charges before and could do so again. Still, there’s no modern precedent for the scandal the Senate Foreign Relations Committee now faces, even as Cardin and the top Republican on the committee, Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, vow to get immediately back to business on the committee’s work—if the looming government shutdown doesn’t stop them first.

A spokesperson for Risch downplayed the effect of the scandal on the committee itself. “One person alone does not determine the work of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, even the chairman,” the spokesperson said. “All four leaders of the House and Senate foreign relations committees have roles and rights as leaders of these important national security committees. Among other things, this helps to ensure one person does not have undue influence on the foreign policy of the U.S. Congress.”

Another takeaway is that Menendez stepping back from the committee is likely permanent, even if he overcomes the second round of corruption charges he has faced and wins an uphill reelection battle.

Menendez, who has served as either chair or ranking member of the committee for the better part of a decade, was a brash and strong-willed lawmaker who had no qualms getting into brass-knuckle political clashes with senior national security officials in Republican and Democratic administrations alike. His ouster removes an ardent hawk from a key Senate leadership position who challenged his own party on policies from Iran to engagement with Cuba to major foreign arms sales. It could give the Biden administration more leeway to defrost ties with Cuba, where every move it made was met with withering criticism from Menendez. He also stood out as a prominent supporter of Israel at a time when support for Israel in the Democratic caucus is wilting.

There could be some tangible impacts on foreign policy, too. Some committee aides hope that Cardin, who they say has a better personal rapport with Risch than Menendez did, can work more effectively to address the growing backlog of nominations for senior diplomatic posts sitting before the committee. The day after Cardin took the committee gavel, the committee sent out a notice that it would be holding nomination hearings for the posts of U.S. ambassador to Somalia and Liberia, as well as a top posting for the U.S. Peace Corps.

There are 37 nominees for senior diplomatic and foreign aid posts pending on the Senate floor, including 23 ambassador nominees, an issue that’s been plaguing the State Department for years as ambassador posts sit unfilled for months or longer. “That’s outrageous,” Cardin said. “Not having a confirmed ambassador in a country weakens the United States’ national security.”

Menendez’s sidelining also removes one roadblock to a planned U.S. sale of F-16 fighter jets to NATO ally Turkey. Menendez led the charge in blocking the arms sale over Turkey’s internal repression and opposition to allowing Finland and Sweden to join the NATO alliance. (Finland has joined, but Sweden is still being held up by Turkey and Hungary.) “One of our most important problems regarding the F-16s were the activities of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez against our country,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters this week, as The Associated Press reported. Cardin declined to say whether he would adopt Menendez’s position on the arms sale, though other senators remain opposed to it.

Finally, the fallout from the indictment could bring new levels of scrutiny to the U.S. relationship with Egypt, a longtime ally that is one of the top recipients of U.S. military aid in the world, worth around $1.3 billion per year. Sen. Chris Murphy, a leading progressive Democrat on the committee who has called on Menendez to resign, told Foreign Policy in a statement that he wanted an investigation into Egypt’s actions with Menendez. Senators “have a responsibility to understand whether Egypt was running an illicit influence campaign on the Foreign Relations Committee,” he said.

The United States has for decades viewed Egypt as a reliable partner and ally, particularly in the context of its relationship with Israel, but a growing number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are questioning that orthodoxy. Human rights and democracy groups charge that Egypt under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has taken a sharply authoritarian bent, and say that continuing the U.S. relationship with Cairo undermines U.S. values and democracy promotion.

A group of lawmakers has repeatedly tried to cut aid to Egypt in recent years, though it has only made limited gains. Days before Menendez’s indictment was unveiled, the Biden administration approved $235 million in aid to Egypt, invoking a waiver on the grounds of national security. Only a fraction of U.S. aid was withheld, to the dismay of lawmakers more concerned about human rights. Since 1946, the United States has provided Egypt with more than $85 billion in military and economic aid.

Human rights advocates and other policy experts are already calling for the Biden administration to rethink that decision. “The immediate action should be to put a hold on that assistance to Egypt until there is proper time to investigate this further,” said Mai El-Sadany, executive director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, a think tank. “Allowing this to go through would send the wrong message for the U.S. at a very wrong time.”

Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on Friday called for the administration to pause a portion of funding to Egypt but did not mention the Menendez indictment in his statement.

The Egyptian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

Egypt has many supporters in Congress beyond Menendez, and Menendez has repeatedly criticized the Egyptian government over human rights violations and detaining political prisoners and journalists. But human rights advocates and lawmakers hope the Menendez indictment triggers a broad rethink of U.S.-Egypt relations.

Tom Malinowski, a former New Jersey Democratic representative who also served as a senior State Department official in the Obama administration, says it’s well past time to reassess the U.S. relationship with Egypt. He has joined a chorus of New Jersey Democrats calling on Menendez to resign.

“The Egyptians behave as if they can get away with just about anything. They act as if they have protectors behind the scenes in Washington who will ensure the money keeps flowing no matter what,” Malinowski said. “This episode perhaps helps explain in part why they have treated the U.S. aid as an entitlement for so many years.”

[xtruss]

5 Times U.S. Presidential Commissions Rocked the Country

What Do a Long List of Iconic and Controversial Historical Events Have in Common? They All Got The Presidential Commission Treatment.

— May 14, 2024 | Kirstin Butler

President Kennedy rides in his motorcade minutes before his assassination in Dallas in 1963. Bill Waterson/Alamy Stock Photo.

A presidential assassination. Widespread racial protest. Pearl Harbor. The high-profile explosion of a space shuttle. Highly disparate topics, but in each case, a U.S. president was moved—whether by public pressure or their own conscience—to call for a special panel investigating the causes and treatments of a pressing issue.

Presidential commissions are tasked, often under heightened political and time constraints, with explaining complex societal dynamics and events. Sometimes those analyses are heeded; other times, as with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Kerner Commission, deliberately ignored. And yet in each instance, the formation of a task force appointed to directly advise the president sends an unmistakable public message as to a problem’s significance. Here are five of the 20th century’s most iconic presidential commissions.

President and Mrs. Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally and his wife ride in the motorcade in Dallas, November 22, 1963. Victor Hugo King/Library of Congress.

Warren Commission

One week after President John F. Kennedy was shot to death in Dallas, Texas, his successor Lyndon Johnson appointed a commission to investigate both Kennedy’s murder and the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald, the president’s alleged assassin. Led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, the commission received testimony from 550 witnesses and 3,100 reports from the FBI and Secret Service.

Nearly 10 months after the task force was formed, the commission submitted its 888-page report to President Johnson, which was subsequently made public along with 26 volumes of supporting documents. The report’s central finding—that Oswald acted alone in Kennedy’s killing, absent any national or international conspiracy—has been the focus of intense speculation and criticism in the years since its release. “As long as a mystery resides at the center of this case, it can't be closed,” investigator Josiah Thompson told American Experience. “There's this fundamental question mark that still stands there in the center of our experience in the 20th century.”

President Lyndon Johnson (Seated, Center) shakes hands with members of the Kerner Commission. July 29, 1967. White House Photo Office Collection, LBJ Presidential Library.

Kerner Commission

The second bombshell commission of Johnson’s presidency, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders—known colloquially as the Kerner or Riot Commission—was established in July 1967 following several years of urban civil uprisings across the United States. Johnson asked his task force to address three questions: “What happened? Why did it happen? What can be done to prevent it from happening again and again?”

Johnson appointed the Democratic governor of Illinois Otto Kerner as the bipartisan commission’s chair, and its field teams undertook a rigorous, on-the-ground investigation in 23 cities to try to understand the root causes of unrest that led to violence, arson and looting. The conclusion the commission members came to was shocking for its time. “White society is deeply implicated in the ghetto,” their 1968 report plainly stated. “White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.” President Johnson was so dismayed that he refused to publicly acknowledge the final report, which nonetheless went on to become a national bestseller.

“The commissioners did not deign to take the easy way out,” said New Yorker journalist Jelani Cobb. “They had the vantage point of having actually seen the conditions with their own eyes, having gone to places and talked to people and come as close as they could to experiencing life in these ghettos. They told the nation what exactly the problem was, even if it meant that no one was going to listen to them.”

A U.S. battleship sinking during the Pearl Harbor attack. National Archives.

Roberts Commission

After the shocking Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called for an investigative task force to determine if negligence or dereliction of duty on the part of military and government officials had enabled the attack. Chaired by Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts, the commission was made up entirely of active or retired military officials. The investigation began in Washington, D.C. and proceeded to Honolulu, interviewing 127 witnesses. Less than two months after the surprise bombing—an extremely fast turnaround for such a significant event—the commission released its findings.

Roosevelt’s task force assigned blame chiefly to Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Lieutenant General Walter C. Short, the U.S. military’s top army and navy commanders in the Pacific, both of whom were demoted, while exonerating several prominent political figures. The commission’s final report never specifically mentioned Japanese Americans, but a passage about “Japanese spies” received widespread media coverage, and played a critical part in turning mainstream American public opinion in favor of incarcerating U.S. citizens of Japanese descent. California’s governor confirmed the connection, saying of many of his constituents at the time, "Since the publication of the Roberts Report, they feel they are living in the midst of enemies. They don't trust the Japanese, none of them.’”

Challenger lifts off on Jan. 28, 1986 with a crew of seven astronauts. An accident 73 seconds after liftoff claimed both crew and vehicle. NASA.

Rogers Commission

On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after its launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida, a disaster broadcast on live television. NASA immediately halted the shuttle program, and President Ronald Reagan appointed a fact-finding commission chaired by former Attorney General and Secretary of State William Rogers to determine the disaster’s cause. Prominent public figures were named commission members, including astronauts Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride, pilot Chuck Yeager and physicist Richard Feynman.

Extensive commission hearings revealed both mechanical and process failures leading to the explosion. Icy conditions on the day of the shuttle’s launch compromised rubber “O ring” seals on one of the shuttle’s rocket boosters during the extreme conditions of takeoff; during one commission session Feynman spectacularly demonstrated the seal failure by plunging an O ring into a glass of ice water. Following testimony that revealed space agency managers were aware of technical problems for years prior to the Challenger mishap, the commission also faulted NASA for poor engineering and management. The explosion, read the commission’s final report, was “an accident rooted in history.”

Admiral James Watkins hands President Reagan the report of the presidential commission on the HIV epidemic. James D. Parcell/The Washington Post via Getty Images.

Watkins Commission

In June 1987, Reagan called for the formation of another fact-finding mission, this one significantly more politically charged than the Challenger’s. The purpose of the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic, Reagan said, was to make HIV go “the way of smallpox and polio.” Among the commission members were both Cardinal John O’Connor and gay medical researcher Frank Lilly; the latter’s appointment drew strong criticism from conservative quarters.

Almost immediately the task force ran into strong ideological and personal differences, leading its chair, vice chair, and only medical staff officer to quit three months in. In a surprise development, however, Reagan promoted an unlikely commission member to be the group’s new chairman. Admiral James D. Watkins, who had served as the U.S. Navy’s top ranking officer and a nuclear strategist, took over amid uncertainty about the panel’s effectiveness. Under his leadership, the commission strongly advised passage of anti-discrimination legislation for HIV patients, more equitable and affordable care, preventative treatment of IV drug use, and a loan program to encourage nurses to serve in communities highly impacted by the virus, among other recommendations. The commission’s final report ultimately called for a $20 billion, 10-year effort to combat the public health crisis. “It’s only seven-tenths of a percent of the defense budget,” Watkins reasoned.

[afactaday]

#aFactADay2021

#16: John F Kennedy sat in a rocking chair whenever he was in Air Force 1. He had really bad back problems from the war: he was in a ship in the south-eastern Asian islands that got hit by a Japanese torpedo and had to swim from island to island carrying his unwell shipmate over his back looking for American help. his physiotherapist recommended swimming (ironically) and sitting in a rocking chair. he loved rocking chairs so much he sat in them for the rest of his life. Also, the worlds largest rocking chair is in Casey, Illinois.

[nativenewyorkerposts]

“It was in the Navy, that Kennedy likely further injured his back.  After the boat he commanded, the PT-109, was rammed by a Japanese destroyer and then sank, he helped save the lives of several of his crew...” (From the Live Science website)  President John F. Kennedy’s rocking chair, which he used at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, was displayed at the New-York Historical Society.  JFK used rocking chairs because of chronic lower back pain.  Of course, pain also affects the lives of ordinary people.  In January, I began to experience severe pain in my shoulder.  I was unable to use my left arm.  Thankfully, after acupuncture and exercise, I’m feeling much better.  During the most painful period, I could relate to these lyrics: “Even the simple things become rough...” (”Midnight Blue” by Melissa Manchester)  (Photo taken on October 11, 2019)

[coolthingsguyslike]

[myhauntedsalem]

Lady Bird Johnson’s Brick House

Lady Bird Johnson was married to Lyndon Baines Johnson who became president after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. The Johnson’s were from Texas.

When she was first lady, Mrs. Johnson was known for her desire to beautify America. But her interest went beyond this. She was a strong advocate for conservation and historical preservation.

Her father, Thomas Jefferson Taylor and her mother, Minnie Patillo Taylor lived in the small town of Karnack located in east Texas. Mr. Taylor was a landowner and local merchant. He bought a stately mansion known as The Brick House in 1902.

Lady Bird was the Taylor’s third child and was born in the home.

Milt Andrews a Confederate Colonel, some sources state he was a Captain, had the mansion built in 1843. It was constructed of bricks made by slave hands.

The Brick House is a classic example of antebellum architecture. It has impressive brick columns and three brick fireplaces. Its balcony is 30 feet high. The mansion has four sets of double doors that lead to the home’s central hall. Access to the second story is via an exterior staircase only.

By the time the Taylors bought the home it was in sad need of repair. They undertook extensive renovations. The eccentric owner they bought the mansion from had left one room filled with hickory nuts.

Lady Bird’s mother died when she was four years old. Minnie tripped over the family’s collie in 1912 as she walked down the stairs. She was pregnant at the time and she miscarried. A few days later she died of septicemia.

Lady Bird was christened, Claudia Alta but her nurse, Alice Tittle stating the little girl was “as pretty as a lady bird” named her Lady Bird. This nickname stuck with her the rest of her life.

Lady Bird graduated from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Journalism. After her father died a Taylor relative donated 385 acres of the family estate in 1934. Today this section is a part of the Caddo Lake State Park.

The Taylor family still owns The Brick House and they keep it in pristine condition. Lady Bird’s former home is not only beautiful but it is also haunted.

A well-known legend states that a young girl was struck by lightning in the home and her ghost has haunted her bedroom ever since.

This young lady was the original owner, Milt Andrew’s daughter, Eunice. She went by the name Oonie. One day as she was sitting in her bedroom rocking chair during a storm in the 1860s a bolt of lightning rushed down the chimney and struck her—she was burned and died.

Since her death people say her spirit has never left this room. When the Taylors bought The Brick House her ghost came with it.

Lady Bird stated she never saw or heard this ghost but that every time she was in Oonie’s former bedroom as a little girl she became nervous. She felt something unseen was in the room with her.

Lady Bird said the servants often told her they saw Miss Oonie. They said this ghost was surrounded in light and was slight of build. She wore a white dress and her hair stood on end—the result of being hit by lightning.

In August of 1966, a newspaper article mentions Lady Bird’s brother Tony Taylor and this haunting. He states various family members did hear a woman sobbing in the mansion at night. They also heard creepy sounds of something moving about.

The Taylor family has taken this haunting in stride. For several generations they have felt this female ghost gives the home extra character. They refer to her as “a lady who lives in the house that nobody sees.”

[nyc-urbanism]

The famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, seen above after opening in 1931, is undergoing a conversion and restoration by the Chinese Anbang Insurance Group who plan on converting the building into 375 condos and 350 hotel rooms. The hotel has been closed since 2017. The original Waldorf Astoria were two separate but adjoining hotels on 5th Ave and 34th Street, built by two competitive cousins in the Astor family. The hotels closed in 1929 were demolished to make way for the Empire State Building. Investors including the New York Central Railroad developable the newly created land above the Grand Central rail yards and chose the block bounded between Park, Lexington, 49th and 50th streets for a new hotel, purchasing the Waldorf-Astoria name for $1 dollar! The Art Deco hotel opened in 1931 with 1,416 rooms, none of which are exactly the same. The tallest and largest hotel of its time, the Waldorf Astoria's most famous room was the 2,245 square foot, 3-bedroom Presidential Suite, which had accommodated eight decades of U.S. Presidents, until Trump. The suite was decorated to resemble the White House with furniture reflecting a traditional Georgian style, including the personal desk of General Douglas MacArthur and one of President John F. Kennedy's rocking chairs. President FDR's train car still occupies track 61 below the hotel (see our earlier post on track 61). The building was designated a historic landmark and right before it closed the Landmarks Commission designated some of it's iconic Art Deco interiors, including Peacock Alley, the Grand Ballroom, Park Avenue lobby, and the Astor Gallery. ☝️Tap to purchase a high-resolution print. #waldorf #waldorfastoria #skyscraper #artdeco #midtown #skyline #nyhistory #hospitalityrealestate #hospitatliy #nyhistory #midtown #parkave #grandcentral #grandcentralterminal #grandcentralhistory #grandcentralrr #nyc #brooklyn #newyorkcity #skyscrapers #architecture #realestate #urbanism #nycurbanism (at Waldorf Astoria New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B244t45nIYK/?igshid=lhjwmwc3jm7v

[blackkudos]

John Hope Franklin

John Hope Franklin (January 2, 1915 – March 25, 2009) was an American historian of the United States and former president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association. Franklin is best known for his work From Slavery to Freedom, first published in 1947, and continually updated. More than three million copies have been sold. In 1995, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Early life and education

Franklin was born in Rentiesville, Oklahoma in 1915 to attorney Buck (Charles) Colbert Franklin (1879–1957) and his wife Mollie (Parker) Franklin. He was named after John Hope, a prominent educator who was the first African-American president of Atlanta University.

Franklin's father Buck Colbert Franklin was a civil rights lawyer, aka "Amazing Buck Franklin." He was of African-American and Choctaw ancestry and born in the Chickasaw Nation in western Indian Territory (formerly Pickens County). He was the seventh of ten children born to David and Milley Franklin. David was a former slave, who became a Chickasaw Freedman when emancipated after the American Civil War. Milley was born free before the war and was of one-fourth Choctaw and three-fourths African-American ancestry. Buck Franklin became a lawyer.

Buck Franklin is best known for defending African-American survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race riot, in which whites had attacked many blacks and buildings, and burned and destroyed the Greenwood District. This was known at the time as the "Black Wall Street", and was the wealthiest Black community in the United States, a center of black commerce and culture. Franklin and his colleagues also became experts at oil law, representing "blacks and Native Americans in Oklahoma against white lawyers representing oil barons." His career demonstrated a strong professional black life in the West, at a time when such accomplishments would have been more difficult to achieve in the Deep South.

John Hope Franklin graduated from Booker T. Washington High School (then segregated) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He graduated in 1935 from Fisk University, a historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, then earned a master's in 1936 and a doctorate in history in 1941 from Harvard University.

Career

"My challenge," Franklin said, "was to weave into the fabric of American history enough of the presence of blacks so that the story of the United States could be told adequately and fairly."

In his autobiography, Franklin has described a series of formative incidents in which he confronted racism while seeking to volunteer his services at the beginning of the Second World War. He responded to the navy's search for qualified clerical workers, but after he presented his extensive qualifications, the navy recruiter told him that he was the wrong color for the position. He was similarly unsuccessful in finding a position with a War Department historical project. When he went to have a blood test, as required for the draft, the doctor initially refused to allow him into his office. Afterward, Franklin took steps to avoid the draft, on the basis that the country did not respect him or have an interest in his well-being, because of his color.

In the early 1950s, Franklin served on the NAACP Legal Defense Fund team led by Thurgood Marshall, and helped develop the sociological case for Brown v. Board of Education. This case, challenging de jure segregated education in the South, was taken to the United States Supreme Court. It ruled in 1954 that the legal segregation of black and white children in public schools was unconstitutional, leading to integration of schools.

Professor and researcher

Franklin's teaching career began at Fisk University. During WWII, he taught at St. Augustine's College from 1939 to 1943 and the North Carolina College for Negroes, currently North Carolina Central University from 1943 to 1947.

From 1947 to 1956, he taught at Howard University. In 1956, Franklin was selected to chair the history department at Brooklyn College, the first person of color to head a major history department. Franklin served there until 1964, when he was recruited by the University of Chicago. He spent 1962 as a visiting professor at the University of Cambridge, holding the Professorship of American History and Institutions.

David Levering Lewis, who has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for history, said that while he was deciding to become a historian, he learned that Franklin, his mentor, had been named departmental chairman at Brooklyn College.

Now that certainly is a distinction. It had never happened before that a person of color had chaired a major history department. That meant a lot to me. If I had doubt about (the) viability of a career in history, that example certainly helped put to rest such concerns.

In researching his prize-winning biography of W. E. B. Du Bois, Lewis said he became aware of Franklin's

courage during that period in the 1950s when Du Bois became an un-person, when many progressives were tarred and feathered with the brush of subversion. John Hope Franklin was a rock; he was loyal to his friends. In the case of W. E. B. Du Bois, Franklin spoke out in his defense, not (about) Du Bois's communism, but of the right of an intellectual to express ideas that were not popular. I find that admirable. It was a high risk to take and we may be heading again into a period when the free concourse of ideas in the academy will have a price put upon it. In the final years of an active teaching career, I will have John Hope Franklin's example of high scholarship, great courage and civic activism.

From 1964 through 1968, Franklin was a professor of history at the University of Chicago, and chair of the department from 1967 to 1970. He was named to the endowed position of John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor, which he held from 1969 to 1982. He was appointed to the Fulbright Board of Foreign Scholarships, 1962–1969, and was its chair from 1966 to 1969.

In 1976, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Franklin for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Franklin's three-part lecture became the basis for his book Racial Equality in America.

Franklin was appointed to the U.S. Delegation to the UNESCO General Conference, Belgrade (1980).

In 1983, Franklin was appointed as the James B. Duke Professor of History at Duke University. In 1985, he took emeritus status from this position. During this same year, he helped to establish the Durham Literacy Center and served on its Board until his death in 2009.

Franklin was also Professor of Legal History at the Duke University Law School from 1985 to 1992.

Racial Equality in America

Racial Equality in America is the published lecture series that Franklin presented in 1976 for the Jefferson Lecture sponsored by the National Endowment for Humanities. The book is composed of three lectures, given in three different cities, in which Franklin chronicled the history of race in the United States from revolutionary times to 1976. These lectures explore the differences between some of the beliefs related to race with the reality documented in various historical and government texts, as well as data gathered from census, property, and literary sources. The first lecture is titled "The Dream Deferred" and discusses the period from the Revolution to 1820. The second lecture is titled "The Old Order Changeth Not" and discusses the rest of the 19th century. The third lecture is titled "Equality Indivisible" and discusses the 20th century.

Later life and death

In 2005, at the age of 90, Franklin published and lectured on his new autobiography, Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin. In 2006, Mirror to America received the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Book Award, which is given annually to honor authors "whose writing, in illuminating past or present injustice, acts as a beacon towards a more just society."

In 2006, he also received the John W. Kluge Prize and as the recipient lectured on the successes and failures of race relations in America in Where do We Go from Here? In 2008, Franklin endorsed presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Franklin died at Duke University Medical Center on the morning of March 25, 2009.

Honors

In 1991, Franklin's students honored him with a festschrift The Facts of Reconstruction: Essays in Honor of John Hope Franklin (edited by Eric Anderson & Alfred A. Moss, Jr. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, c1991).

Franklin served as president of the American Historical Association (1979), the American Studies Association (1967), the Southern Historical Association (1970), and the Organization of American Historians (1975). He was a member of the board of trustees at Fisk University, the Chicago Public Library, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association.

Franklin was elected as a foundation member of Fisk's new chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in 1953, when Fisk became the first historically black college to have a chapter of the honor society. In 1973–1976, he served as President of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa.

Additionally, Franklin was appointed to serve on national commissions, including the National Council on the Humanities, the President's Advisory Commission on Ambassadorial Appointments, and One America: The President's Initiative on Race.

Franklin was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He was an early beneficiary of the fraternity's Foundation Publishers, which provides financial support and fellowship for writers addressing African-American issues.

In 1962, honored as an outstanding historian, Franklin became the first black member of the exclusive Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C.

The John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture resides at Duke University's David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library and contains his personal and professional papers. The archive is one of three academic units named after Franklin at Duke. The others are the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies, which opened in February 2001 and the Franklin Humanities Institute. Franklin had previously rejected Duke's offer to name a center for African-American Studies after him, saying that he was a historian of America and the world, too.

In 1975, he was awarded the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates.

In 1975, Franklin was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree from Whittier College.

In 1978, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

In 1994, the Society of American Historians (founded by Allan Nevins and other historians to encourage literary distinction in the writing of history) awarded Franklin its Bruce Catton Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

In 1995, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP.

In 1995, President Clinton awarded Franklin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. The President's remarks upon presentation of the medal cited Franklin's lifelong work as a teacher and a student of history, seeking to bring about better understanding regarding relations between whites and blacks in modern times.

In 1995, he received the Chicago History Museum "Making History Award" for Distinction in Historical Scholarship.

In 1997, Franklin was selected to receive the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, a career literary award given annually by the Tulsa Library Trust. Franklin was the first (and so far only) native Oklahoman to receive the award. During his visit to Tulsa to accept the award, Franklin made several appearances to speak about his childhood experiences with racial segregation, as well as his father's experiences as a lawyer in the aftermath of the 1921 Tulsa race riot.

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included Franklin on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry presented the Governor's Arts Award to Dr. Franklin in 2004.

In 2005, Franklin received the North Caroliniana Society Award for "long and distinguished service in the encouragement, production, enhancement, promotion, and preservation of North Caroliniana."

On May 20, 2006, Franklin was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters at Lafayette College's 171st Commencement Exercises.

On November 15, 2006, John Hope Franklin was announced as the third recipient of the John W. Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement in the study of humanity. He shared the prize with Yu Ying-shih.

On October 27, 2010, the City of Tulsa renamed Reconciliation Park, established to commemorate the victims of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, as John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park in his honor. It includes a 27-foot bronze entitled Tower of Reconciliation by sculptor Ed Dwight, expressing the long history of Africans in Oklahoma.

Marriage and family

Franklin married Aurelia Whittington on June 11, 1940. She was a librarian. Their only child, John Whittington Franklin, was born August 24, 1952. Their marriage lasted 59 years, until January 27, 1999, when Aurelia succumbed to a long illness.

[nemesisbinxartifactseries]

Artifact Series J

J. Allen Hynek's Telescope

J. Edgar Hoover's Tie

J. McCullough's Golf Ball

J. Templer's Wind-Up Tin Rooster *

J. C. Agajanian’s Stetson

J.T. Saylors's Overalls

J.M. Barrie’s Swiss Trychels

J.M.W. Turner's Rain, Steam and Speed-The Great Western Railway *

J.R.R. Tolken's Ring

Jack-in-the-Box

Jack's Magic Beanstalk

Jack Daniel's Original Whisky Bottle

Jack Dawson's Art Kit

Jack Duncan's Spur *

Jack Frost's Staff

Jack Kerouac's Typewriter

Jack Ketch's Axe

Jack LaLanne's Stationary Bike *

Jack London's Dog Collar

Jack Parson's Rocket Engine

Jack Sheppard's Hammer

Jack Sparrow's Compass

Jack Torrance's Croquet Mallet

Jack the Ripper's Lantern *

Jackie Robinson's Baseball

Jackson Pollock's "No. 5, 1948"

Jackson Pollock's Pack of Cigarettes

Jackson Pollock's Paint Cans

Jack's Regisword

Jack Vettriano's "The Singing Butler"

Jack's Wrench

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's Kinder- und Hausmarchen

Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian's Otoscope

Jacob Kurtzberg's Belt *

Jacqueline Cochran's Brooch

Jacques Aymar-Vernay’s Dowsing Rod

Jacques Cousteau's Goggles

Jacques Cousteau's Diving Suit

Jacques-Louis David's Napoleon Crossing the Alps *

Jade Butterfly

Jadeite Cabbage

Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Akbar's Smoke Pipe

Jamaica Ginger Bottle

Jaleel White's Hosting Chair

James Abbot McNeill Whistler's Whistler's Mother *

James Allen's Memoir

James Bartley's Britches

James Ben Ali Haggin's Leaky Fountain Pen

James Bert Garner’s Gas Mask

James Bett's Cupboard Handle

James Braid's Chair *

James Brown's Shoes

James Bulger's Sweater

James Buzzanell's Painting "Grief and Pain"

James Buzzanell’s Survey Books

James C. McReynolds’ Judicial Robe

James Chadwick's Nobel Prize

James Clerk Maxwell's Camera Lens

James Colnett's Otter Pelt

James Condliff's Skeleton Clock

James Cook's Mahiole and Feather Cloak

James Craik's Spring Lancet

James Dean's 1955 Prosche 550 Spyder, aka "Little Bastard"

James Dean's UCLA Varsity Jacket

James Dinsmoor's Dinner Bell

James Eads How’s Bindle

James Earl Ray's Rifle

James Fenimore Cooper's Arrow Heads

James Gandolfini's Jukebox

James Hadfield’s Glass Bottle of Water

James Hall III’s Shopping Bags

James Henry Atkinson's Mouse Trap

James Henry Pullen’s Mannequin

James Hoban's Drawing Utensils

James Holman’s Cane

James Hutton's Overcoat

James Joyce’s Eyepatch

James M. Barrie's Grandfather Clock

James M. Barrie's Suitcase

James Murrell's Witch Bottle

James Philip’s Riata

James Prescott Joule's Thermodynamic Generator

James Smithson's Money

James Tilly Matthews’ Air Loom

James Warren and Willoughby Monzani's Piece of Wood

James Watt's Steam Condenser

James Watt's Weather Vane

James W. Marshall’s Jar

Jan Baalsrud’s Stretcher

Jan Baptist van Helmont's Willow Tree

Jane Austen's Carriage

Jane Austen's Gloves

Jane Austen's Quill

Jane Bartholomew's "Lady Columbia" Torch

Jane Pierce's Veil

Janet Leigh's Shower Curtain

Janine Charrat's Ballet Slippers

Jan Janzoon's Boomerang *

Janis Joplin's Backstage Pass from Woodstock *

Jan Karski's Passport

Janus Coin *

Jan van Eyck’s Chaperon

Jan van Speyk's Flag of the Netherlands

Jan Wnęk's Angel Figurine

Jan Žižka's Wagenburg Wagons

The Japanese Nightingale

Jar of Dust from the Mount Asama Eruption

Jar of Greek Funeral Beans

Jar of Marbles

Jar of Molasses from The Boston Molasses Disaster

Jar of Sand

Jar of Semper Augustus Bulbs

Jar of Shiva

Jar of Sugar Plums

Jascha Heifetz's Violin Bow

Jason Voorhese's Machete

Javed Iqbal's Barrel of Acid

Jay Maynard's Tron Suit

Jean II Le Maingre's Gauntlets

Jean Baptiste Charbonneau’s Cradleboard

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin's Bubble Pipe

Jean Chastel's Silver Gun

Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin's Pocket Watch

Jean Fleury's Aztec Gold Coins

Jean-François Champollion’s Ideographic Dictionary

Jean Froissart's Mirror *

Jean-Frédéric Peugeot's Pepper Mill

Jean Hilliard’s Earmuffs

Jean Parisot de Valette’s Sword Sheath

Jean-Paul Marat's Bathtub

Jean Paul-Satre’s Paper Cutter

Jean-Pierre Christin's Thermometer

Jean Senebier's Bundle of Swiss Alpine Flowers

Jean Valnet's Aromatherapy Statue

Jean Vrolicq’s Scrimshaw

Jeanne Baret's Hat

Jeanne de Clisson's Black Fleet

Jeanne Villepreux-Power's Aquarium

Jeannette Piccard's Sandbag

Jeff Dunham's First Ventriloquist Box

Jefferson Davis' Boots

Jefferson Randolph Smith's Soap Bar

Jeffrey Dahmer's Handkerchief

Jeffrey Dahmer's Pick-Up Sticks

Jemmy Hirst's Carriage Wheel

Jenny Lind's Stage Makeup

Jeopardy! Contestant Podiums

Jerome Monroe Smucker's Canning Jars

Jerry Andrus’ Organ

Jerry Garcia's Blackbulb *

Jerry Siegel's Sketchbook

Jesse James' Saddle

Jesse James' Pistol

Jesse Owens' Hitler Oak

Jesse Owens' Running Shoes

Jesse Pomeroy's Ribbon and Spool

Jester's Mask

Jesus of Nazareth's Whip

Jesús García's Brake Wheel

Jet Engine from the Gimli Glider

Jet Glass Cicada Button

Jethro Tull's Hoe

Jeweled Scabbard of Sforza

Jiang Shunfu’s Mandarin Square

Jim Davis' Pet Carrier

Jim Fixx's Shorts

Jim Henson's Talking Food Muppets

Jim Jones' Sunglasses

Jim Londos' Overalls

Jim Robinson's Army Bag

Jim Thorpe's Shoulder Pads

Jim Ward's Piercing Samples

Jimi Hendrix's Bandana

Jimi Hendrix's Bong

Jimi Hendrix's Guitars *

Jimmie Rodgers Rail Brake

Jimmy Durante's Cigar

Jimmy Gibb Jr's Stock Car

Jimmy Hoffa's Comb

Jin Dynasty Chainwhip

Jingle Harness

Joan II, Duchess of Berry's Dress

Joan of Arc's Chain Mail

Joan of Arc's Helmet (canon)

Joan Feynman's Ski Pole

Joanna of Castile's Vase

Joan Rivers' Carpet Steamer

Joan Rivers' Red Carpet

Joe Ades's Potato Peeler

Joe Girard’s Keys

Joe Rosenthal's Camera Lens

Joel Brand's Playing Cards

Joséphine de Beauharnais' Engagement Ring

Johan Alfred Ander’s Piece of Porcelain

Johann Baptist Isenring’s Acacia Tree

Johann Bartholomaeus Adam Beringer's Lying Stones

Johann Blumhardt's Rosary

Johann Dzierzon’s Beehive Frame

Johann Georg Elser's Postcard

Johann Maelzel's Metronome *

Johann Rall's Poker Cards

Johann Tetzel's Indulgence

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Prism

Johannes Brahms' Coffee Creamer

Johannes Diderik van der Waals' Gloves

Johannes Fabricius' Camera Obscura

Johannes Gutenburg's Memory Paper *

Johannes Gutenburg's Printing Press *

Johannes Gutenberg's Printing Press Keys

Johannes Kepler's Planetary Model

Johannes Kepler's Telescope Lense

Johannes Kjarval’s Landscape Painting

John A. Macready's Ray-Bans *

John A. Roebling's Steel Cable

John A.F. Maitland's Musical Brainnumber *

John André’s Stocking

John Anthony Walker's Minox

John Axon's Footplate

John Babbacombe Lee’s Trapdoor

John Bardeen's Radio

John Bodkin Adams’ Stethoscope

John Brown's Body *

John Brown's Machete

John C. Koss SP3 Stereophones

John C. Lilly's Isolation Tank Valve

John Cabot's Map

John Carl Wilcke's Rug *

John Crawley's Painting

John Croghan's Limestone Brick

John Dalton's Weather Vane

John Dee's Golden Talisman

John Dee's Obsidian Crystal Ball

John Dee’s Seal of God

John DeLorean's Drawing Table

John Dickson Carr's Driving Gloves

John Dillinger's Pistol *

John D. Grady’s Satchel

John D. Rockefeller's Bible

John D. Rockefeller, Sr. and Jr.'s Top Hats

John Dwight's Hammer

John F. Kennedy's Coconut

John F. Kennedy's Presidental Limousine

John F. Kennedy's Tie Clip *

John Flaxman's Casting Molds

Sir John Franklin's Scarf

John Gay's Shilling

John Gillespie Magee, Jr.'s Pen

John H. Kellogg's Bowl

John H. Kellogg's Corn Flakes

John H. Lawrence's Pacifier

John Hancock's Quill

John Harrison’s Longcase Clock

John Hawkwood’s Lance

John Hendrix's Bible

John Henry Moore's White Banner

John Henry's Sledge Hammer

John Hetherington's Top Hat

John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter's Torture Rack

John Holmes Pump *

John Hopoate's Cleats

John Howard Griffin's Bus Fare

John Hunter's Stitching Wire

John Hunter's Surgical Sutures

John J. Pershing's Boots

John Jacob Astor's Beaver Pelt

John Jervis’ Ship

John Joshua Webb’s Rock Chippings

John Kay's Needle

John Keat's Grecian Urn *

John, King of England's Throne

John L. Sullivan's Boots

John Langdon Down's Stencils

John Lawson's Mannequin Legs

John Lennon's Glasses

John "Liver-Eating" Johnson's Axe

John Logie Baird's Scanning Disk *

John M. Allegro's Fly Amanita

John Macpherson's Ladle

John Malcolm's Chunk of Skin

John Malcolm's Skin Wallet

John McEnroe's Tennis Racket *

John Milner's Yellow '32 Ford Deuce Coupe

John Moore-Brabazon’s Waste Basket

John Morales' McGruff Suit

John Mytton’s Carriage

John Pasche's Rolling Stones Poster Design

John Paul Jones's Sword

John Pemberton's Tasting Spoon

John Philip Sousa's Sousaphone

John Rambo's Composite Bow

John Rykener's Ring

John Shore's Tuning Fork

John Simon's Mouthwash

John Simon Ritchie's Padlock Necklace

John Smith of Jamestown's Sword

John Snow's Dot Map

John Snow’s Pump Handle

John Stapp’s Rocket Sled

John Steinbeck's Luger

John Sutcliffe's Camera

John Sutter's Pickaxe

John Tunstall's Horse Saddle

John Trumbull's "Painting of George Washington"

John von Neumann's Abacus

John Walker's Walking Stick

John Wayne Gacy's Clown Painting *

John Wayne Gacy's Facepaint

John Wesley Hardin's Rosewood Grip Pistol

John Wesley Powell's Canoe

John Wesley Powell’s Canteen

John Wilkes Booth's Boot *

John Wilkes Booth Wanted Poster

John William Polidori's Bookcase

Johnny Ace's Gun

Johnny Appleseed's Tin Pot *

Johnny Campbell's University of Minnesota Sweater

Johnny Depp's Scissor Gloves

Johnny Smith's Steering Wheel

Johnny Weismuller's Loincloth *

Joker's BANG! Revolver

Jon Stewart's Tie

Jonathan Coulton's Guitar

Jonathan R. Davis' Bowie Knife

Jonathan Shay's Copy of Iliad/Odyssey

Jonestown Water Cooler

Jorge Luis Borges' Scrapbook

José Abad Santos' Pebble

José Delgado’s Transmitter

Jose Enrique de la Pena's Chest Piece

Jōsei Toda’s Gohonzon Butsudan

Josef Frings’ Ferraiolo

Josef Mengele's Scalpel

Josef Stefan's Light Bulbs

Joseph of Arimathea's Tomb Rock

Joseph of Cupertino's Medallion *

Joseph Day's Sickle

Joseph Ducreux's Cane

Joseph Dunninger's Pocket Watch

Joseph Dunningers’ Props

Joseph E. Johnston Confederate Flag

Joseph Force Crater's Briefcases

Joseph Fourier's Pocket Knife

Joseph Glidden’s Barbed Wire

Joseph Goebbels' Radio *

Joseph Jacquard's Analytical Loom

Joseph Bolitho Johns’ Axe

Joseph Kittinger's Parachute

Joseph Lister's Padding

Joseph McCarthy's List of Communists

Joseph Merrick's Hood

Joseph-Michel Montgolfier's Wicker Basket

Joseph Moir’s Token

Joseph Pilate's Resistance Bands *

Joseph Polchinski’s Billiard Ball

Joseph Stalin's Gold Star Medal *

Joseph Stalin's Sleep Mask *

Joseph Swan's Electric Light

Joseph Vacher's Accordion

Joseph Vacher's Dog Skull

Joseph Valachi's '58 Chevrolet Impala

Josephus' Papyrus

Joseph Wolpe's Glasses

Josephine Cochrane's Dishwasher

Joshua's Trumpet *

Josiah S. Carberry's Cracked Pot

Joshua Vicks' Original Batch of Vicks Vapor Rub

Josiah Wedgewood's Medallion

Jost Burgi's Armillary Sphere *

Jovan Vladimir's Cross

Juana the Mad of Castiles' Crown

Juan Luis Vives' Quill Set

Juan Moreira’s Facón

Juan Pounce de Leon's Chalice

Juan Ponce de León's Helmet

Juan Seguin's Bandolier

Jubilee Grand Poker Chip *

Judah Loew ben Belazel's Amulet *

Judas Iscariot’s Thirty Silver Coins

Judson Laipply's Shoes

Jules Baillarger's Decanter

Jules Leotard's Trapeze Net

Jules Verne's Original Manuscripts

Julia Agrippa's Chalice

Julia Child's Apron *

Julia Child's Whisk

Julian Assange’s Flash Drive

Julie d’Aubigny's Sabre

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's Wedding Rings

Julius Asclepiodotus’ Shield Boss

Julius Caesar's Wreath

Julius Wilbrand's Lab Coat Buttons *

Jumanji

Jumper Cables

Junji Koyama’s Vegetables

Jure Sterk's Ballpoint Pen

Jürgen Wattenberg's Leather Provision Bag

Justa Grata Honoria’s Engagement Ring

Justin Bieber's Guitar

Justinian I's Chariot Wheel

Justin O. Schmidt's Wasp Mask

Justus von Liebig's Fertilizer Sack

Justus von Liebig's Mirror

[everythingkennedy]

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (center) and Anita Marcus Fay (left), wife of Under Secretary of the Navy Paul "Red" Fay, bend down to look at a toy helicopter during Easter holiday celebrations at the residence rented from Kennedy family friend C. Michael Paul in Palm Beach, Florida. John F. Kennedy, Jr. (drinking from a glass) looks on from right; President John F. Kennedy (partially hidden on edge of frame) sits in a rocking chair at far left; others are unidentified.

[lancer-andlace]

President John F. Kennedy in his rocking chair

[lindaseccaspina]

The Middleville Chair that Ended up Rocking John F. Kennedy President of the United States

The Middleville Chair that Ended up Rocking John F. Kennedy President of the United States

[history-matters]

Berlin crisis interpreter

Ambassador of West Germany Karl Heinrich Knappstein, Vice chancellor of West Germany, Dr. Ludwig Erhard, interpreter Nora Lejins, Kennedy. Inidentified woman sits in foreground with back to camera. Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. 1961

President John F. Kennedy (in rocking chair) meets with Chancellor of West Germany, Dr. Konrad Adenauer. Standing in background (L-R): Assistant Chief of Language Services at the State Department, interpreter Nora Lejins; two unidentified photographers; White House Secret Service agent, Dick Johnsen; New York Times photographer, George Tames. Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. Nov 14, 1962

[furnituremadeinusa]

Kennedy Rocker

This Kennedy rocker was beloved by President John F. Kennedy to relieve back pain from a lingering war injury. Prescribed by his doctor, Janet Travell, who attested that rocking relieves tension in the lower back by keeping muscles moving – contracting and relaxing. This chair is a masterpiece of furniture, with turned legs and posts, natural cane back and seat, and wide seat. Troutman specializes in providing authentic Kennedy rockers.

[myhauntedsalem]

Lady Bird Johnson’s Brick House

Lady Bird Johnson was married to Lyndon Baines Johnson who became president after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. The Johnson’s were from Texas.

When she was first lady, Mrs. Johnson was known for her desire to beautify America. But her interest went beyond this. She was a strong advocate for conservation and historical preservation.

Her father, Thomas Jefferson Taylor and her mother, Minnie Patillo Taylor lived in the small town of Karnack located in east Texas. Mr. Taylor was a landowner and local merchant. He bought a stately mansion known as The Brick House in 1902.

Lady Bird was the Taylor’s third child and was born in the home.

Milt Andrews a Confederate Colonel, some sources state he was a Captain, had the mansion built in 1843. It was constructed of bricks made by slave hands.

The Brick House is a classic example of antebellum architecture. It has impressive brick columns and three brick fireplaces. Its balcony is 30 feet high. The mansion has four sets of double doors that lead to the home’s central hall. Access to the second story is via an exterior staircase only.

By the time the Taylors bought the home it was in sad need of repair. They undertook extensive renovations. The eccentric owner they bought the mansion from had left one room filled with hickory nuts.

Lady Bird’s mother died when she was four years old. Minnie tripped over the family’s collie in 1912 as she walked down the stairs. She was pregnant at the time and she miscarried. A few days later she died of septicemia.

Lady Bird was christened, Claudia Alta but her nurse, Alice Tittle stating the little girl was “as pretty as a lady bird” named her Lady Bird. This nickname stuck with her the rest of her life.

Lady Bird graduated from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Journalism. After her father died a Taylor relative donated 385 acres of the family estate in 1934. Today this section is a part of the Caddo Lake State Park.

The Taylor family still owns The Brick House and they keep it in pristine condition. Lady Bird’s former home is not only beautiful but it is also haunted.

A well-known legend states that a young girl was struck by lightning in the home and her ghost has haunted her bedroom ever since.

This young lady was the original owner, Milt Andrew’s daughter, Eunice. She went by the name Oonie. One day as she was sitting in her bedroom rocking chair during a storm in the 1860s a bolt of lightning rushed down the chimney and struck her—she was burned and died.

Since her death people say her spirit has never left this room. When the Taylors bought The Brick House her ghost came with it.

Lady Bird stated she never saw or heard this ghost but that every time she was in Oonie’s former bedroom as a little girl she became nervous. She felt something unseen was in the room with her.

Lady Bird said the servants often told her they saw Miss Oonie. They said this ghost was surrounded in light and was slight of build. She wore a white dress and her hair stood on end—the result of being hit by lightning.

In August of 1966, a newspaper article mentions Lady Bird’s brother Tony Taylor and this haunting. He states various family members did hear a woman sobbing in the mansion at night. They also heard creepy sounds of something moving about.

The Taylor family has taken this haunting in stride. For several generations they have felt this female ghost gives the home extra character. They refer to her as “a lady who lives in the house that nobody sees.”