Student essay handwritten a few days after the Kennedy assassination

Object number2013.015.0027

Date11/26/1963 - 11/27/1963

ClassificationsDocuments

ObjectDocument

Credit LineDuane Keilstrup Family Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumPaper

Dimensions10 1/2 × 8 in. (26.7 × 20.3 cm)

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DescriptionHandwritten student essay by Jerry R. Barner from November 26-27, 1963. Barner was a student at Arlington State College (now the University of Texas at Arlington). His professor, Duane Keilstrup, gave his students a voluntary assignment, asking them to write down their thoughts in the days following President Kennedy's assassination. Barner writes that he believes that any person who becomes a leader will have to put up with people who don't like him and that these people may "justly or unjustly" rebel against his leadership. Barner questions if Oswald may have assassinated the president so that the "U.S. might change its policies toward Cuba, Red China, or Russia" but then he wonders if the assassination happened out of "blind hate."

Curatorial Commentary

Dr. Duane Keilstrup taught at Arlington State College (later the University of Texas at Arlington) for more than three decades. He and his wife Glenda, who was also at UTA on November 22, 1963, recorded a joint oral history with the Museum on February 1, 2013. At that time they donated some sixty-five essays about the Kennedy assassination, written as a voluntary class assignment by Keilstrup's students within days of the president's death. Today these immediate firsthand recollections provide students and researchers with valuable insight into the mood of local college students and the political atmosphere of the time. - Stephen Fagin, Associate Curator