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Bob Jackson Living History Program

Object number2009.001.0049
Date07/22/2009
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject Bob Jackson
Oral history interviewer Stephen Fagin
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumBorn digital (.m2ts file)
DimensionsDuration: 45 Minutes
DescriptionVideotaped Living History program with Bob Jackson. A staff photographer at the Dallas Times Herald in 1963, Jackson covered the presidential party’s arrival at Dallas Love Field and, while riding in a motorcade press car, spotted a rifle in a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. He was also at Parkland Memorial Hospital and Dallas police headquarters that day. On Sunday, November 24, 1963, Jackson captured an iconic photograph of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of Dallas police headquarters. His image won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in News Photography. Jackson later covered the Jack Ruby trial in Dallas. Program conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on July 22, 2009 by Stephen Fagin. The program is forty-five minutes long.
Curatorial Commentary

Bob Jackson recorded his first oral history with The Sixth Floor Museum on the 30th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, November 22, 1993. That interview may be viewed here: Bob Jackson Oral History – Search jackson (Objects) – Search – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza (jfk.org). Since that time, he has remained a longtime friend of the Museum, returning to participate in more than ten public and educational programs and special events, all recorded as part of the Oral History Project. Among these are the 2012 panel discussion "Oswald Has Been Shot!" (Oswald Has Been Shot! (youtube.com)); an eyewitness panel at the 50th anniversary in 2013 (JFK Assassination 50th Anniversary Media Open House - Eyewitness Panel (youtube.com)); and a 2014 reunion of Dallas Times Herald photographers (Dallas Times Herald 1963 (youtube.com)).    

In addition to programming, Bob Jackson was the subject of a special photographic exhibition, "A Photographer's Story: Bob Jackson and the Kennedy Assassination," which ran in the Museum's Seventh Floor Gallery from February 2009 to October 2010. This 2009 Living History educational program was recorded during the run of that exhibit. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

Bob Jackson's official listing as a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1964 may be accessed here on the Pulitzer website: Robert H. Jackson of Dallas Times-Herald - The Pulitzer Prizes. - Stephen Fagin, Curator