Senator Harris Wofford Oral History

Object number2010.001.0110

Date09/21/2010

ClassificationsOral Histories

Oral history interview subject Harris Wofford

Oral history interviewer Stephen Fagin

ObjectOral history

Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumBorn digital (.wav file)

Dimensions48 Minutes

Terms

Collections

DescriptionAudio oral history interview with Senator Harris Wofford. A one-time civil rights advisor to both President Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Wofford also served as associate director of the Peace Corps (1962-66) and U.S. senator from Pennsylvania (1991-95). He wrote the book "Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties" (1992). Interview conducted on September 21, 2010 by Curator Stephen Fagin. The interview is 48 minutes long.

Curatorial Commentary

After Pennsylvania Senator H. John Heinz III died in a plane crash on April 4, 1991, Harris Wofford was appointed to his open Senate seat by Governor Robert Casey. This made Wofford the first Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania since 1969. He later won a special election, held in November 1991, and kept his seat in the U.S. Senate until 1994 when he narrowly lost to Congressman - and future candidate for the Republican presidential nomination - Rick Santorum. - Stephen Fagin, Curator