Image of hallway outside Homocide & Robbery Bureau at Dallas Police Department

Jim Lehrer, an Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist best known for the long-running PBS NewsHour program and for moderating presidential debates (1988-2012), was a reporter at the Dallas Times Herald in 1963. Assigned to Dallas Love Field on November 22, 1963, he witnessed the Secret Service remove the bubbletop from the presidential limousine shortly before the Dallas motorcade. Following the assassination, he covered the scene at Dallas police headquarters.

Mr. Lehrer recorded an oral history interview with the Museum in November 2013, which may be accessed in the Museum’s online collections database here: Jim Lehrer Oral History – Works – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

More objects related to Jim Lehrer may be found here: Thesaurus – Vocabularies – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. - Riley Harris, Collections Cataloger

This object is featured in the Museum's special exhibit, "On Assignment: Dallas Times Herald 1963," which opened on April 29, 2026.

It is not clear which Dallas Morning News photographer took this image. Jack Beers, Tom Dillard and Bill Winfrey are the photographers who were present when the photograph was taken. It could have been any of them. - Stephanie Allen-Givens, Collections and Exhibits Manager

In their 1964 Report, the Warren Commission described the third floor of Dallas police headquarters like this: "The focal center of the Police and Courts Building during Oswald's detention was the third floor, which housed the main offices of the Dallas Police Department. The public elevators on this floor opened into a lobby midpoint of a corridor that extended along the length of the floor for about 140 feet. At one end of this 7-foot-wide corridor were the offices occupied by Chief of Police Jesse E. Curry and his immediate subordinates; at the other end was a small pressroom that could accommodate only a handful of reporters. Along this corridor were other police offices, including those of the major detective bureaus. Between the pressroom and the lobby was the complex of offices belonging to the homicide and robbery bureau, headed by Capt. J. Will Fritz." Warren Commission Exhibit No. 2175 is a third floor layout of Dallas police headquarters. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator  

The reporter in the center, wearing the tan coat, is the late Jim Lehrer, who was then a reporter with the Dallas Times Herald. Earlier that day, Lehrer had covered the arrival of the Kennedys at Dallas Love Field. Lehrer would go on to become an Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist, best known for the long-running PBS NewsHour program and for moderating twelve presidential debates between 1988 and 2012. Lehrer recorded an oral history with The Sixth Floor Museum on November 1, 2013. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator