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Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson surrounded by a crowd during a Dallas campaign stop
Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson surrounded by a crowd during a Dallas campaign stop

Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson surrounded by a crowd during a Dallas campaign stop

Object number2014.080.0129.0002
Date11/04/1960
ClassificationsPhotographs
Photographer Dallas Morning News Photographer
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
Dimensions15/16 × 1 5/16 in. (2.4 × 3.3 cm)
Collections
DescriptionOriginal 35mm black and white negative taken by a staff photographer from The Dallas Morning News. The image shows Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird Johnson amidst a crowd of supporters and protesters during a campaign visit to Dallas on November 4, 1960. A photographer on the left is holding a camera with a large flash. Kennedy-Johnson campaign signs and at least one "Tower" sign are in the image. This event took place four days before the presidential election.
Curatorial Commentary

The November 5, 1960 edition of The Dallas Morning News included a story on page 1A that describes this campaign visit in detail:

"LBJ CALLS PRO-NIXON FANS AT HIS RALLY "DISCOURTEOUS" - SENATOR JEERED AT DALLAS HOTEL - Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson with his wife Friday dismissed police guards and pushed their way through a howling, chanting, jeering pro-Nixon crowd which he later called 'frustrated, discourteous and desperate.'  It took the smiling Johnson and grim-faced Lady Bird almost 30 minutes to inch their way through the Republican demonstrators from the front entrance of the Hotel Adolphus to the Grand Ballroom where he was greeted by 2,000 wildly cheering luncheon guests.  The Nixon demonstrators, among them Congressman Bruce Alger of Dallas, first confronted Johnson when his motorcade arrived at the Baker Hotel."

- Lindsey Richardson, Curator of Collections

The Adolphus Hotel incident in Dallas, just four days before the election, remains one of the most colorful and notorious moments of the 1960 presidential campaign -- and it very likely shifted support to the Kennedy-Johnson ticket in crucial areas of the South. Many Republicans lamented in the aftermath of Kennedy's victory that Republican demonstrators in Dallas had spoiled the election.

I had the pleasure of delivering a lecture on this subject during the run of our special exhibit, "A Time for Greatness: The 1960 Kennedy Campaign."  You can view a recording of this presentation here on the Museum's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTcOHZgFhyE.  - Stephen Fagin, Curator