Image of crowds waiting for Kennedy at Meacham Field in Fort Worth

Object number2014.080.0079.0002

Date09/13/1960

ClassificationsPhotographs

Photographer Donald C. Grant

ObjectNegative (b&w)

Credit LineThe Dallas Morning News Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Donated by The Dallas Morning News in the interest of preserving history

MediumFilm

Dimensions2 3/16 × 2 3/16 in. (5.6 × 5.6 cm)

Terms

Collections

DescriptionOriginal 120 mm black and white negative taken by The Dallas Morning News staff photographer Clint Grant. The image shows a crowd of people holding Kennedy-Johnson campaign signs while standing behind a chain-link fence at Meacham Field in Fort Worth, Texas, on September 13, 1960. A camera is set up on a tripod in the left side of the image. There are a couple of signs reading "KENNEDY for President" and another with the words "BAPTIST for KENNEDY."

Curatorial Commentary

The day before his 1960 Dallas/Fort Worth visit, Senator Kennedy made a major address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association at the Rice Hotel in Houston, Texas (the same hotel he would again visit on November 21, 1963, the day before the assassination). In his televised address on September 12, 1960, Kennedy directly confronted the "religious issue": pointed accusations that he would allow his Catholic faith to influence the execution of his responsibilities as president. His bold confrontation of this question made this one of the most important speeches of the 1960 campaign.

The "Baptist for Kennedy" sign in this photograph certainly references the "religious issue" of the 1960 campaign and likely signifies support for his televised speech from Houston the day before. It is, however, somewhat interesting that the sign uses the singular "Baptist" rather than the plural "Baptists." - Stephen Fagin, Associate Curator