Mike Burns Oral History
Object number2016.001.0016
Date01/29/2016
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject
Mike Burns
Oral history interviewer
Stephen Fagin
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumBorn digital (.wav file)
DimensionsDuration: 24 Minutes
Terms
- Oral histories
- Youth
- Student
- 1960 presidential election
- 1960s
- Racism
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- Nuclear threat
- Space Race
- Project Mercury
- Astronauts
- Assassination
- TV coverage
- Television
- Live broadcast
- Military service
- Police
- 1968 presidential election
- Reagan, Ronald
- Kennedy, Robert F.
- U.S. Marine Corps
- Indiana
- Childhood Recollections (OHC)
- Law Enforcement (OHC)
Collections
- All Online Objects
- Oral History Collection
DescriptionAudio oral history interview with Mike Burns. A tenth-grade student in 1963, Burns was inspired in part by the Kennedy assassination to pursue a career in law enforcement, serving as an Indiana State Trooper for three decades.
Interview conducted by telephone on January 29, 2016 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is twenty-four minutes long.
Curatorial CommentaryIndiana resident Mike Burns contacted me with a research inquiry about the Oswald shooting in late 2015. After learning about his childhood memories of the assassination and how the event partly inspired his later career in law enforcement, I invited him to be part of our Oral History Project. We recorded this telephone interview in early 2016. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
Robert F. Kennedy's historic speech in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 4, 1968 may be viewed on the YouTube channel of the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center here: Indianapolis, 1968: Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King and a historic call for peace. The recording captures the moment the crowd was made aware of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death, followed by the powerful speech Robert Kennedy gave in response to the unfortunate passing of the civil rights leader. - Riley Harris, Collections Cataloger
