At Rowan, remembering JFK’s assassination 60 years later

Sixty years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Rowan University will bring community members together to share memories of the nation’s 35^th president—and his untimely passing.

As part of the University’s Celebrating Operation Uganda Lecture & Event Series on Monday, Nov. 13, people of all backgrounds will have the opportunity to share their memories as they recall both the Kennedy presidency and the president’s assassination in Dallas in November of 1963.

The roundtable discussion is set for 6:30 p.m. on the third floor of the Campbell Library on Rowan’s main campus in Glassboro. Participants will share their memories of Kennedy and the assassination as part of a social and cultural history project that will be preserved in the University Archives.

“We welcome anyone to share their memories. We are particularly interested in hearing from folks who were in South Jersey when President Kennedy was killed,” says Rowan historian Bill Carrigan, who is leading the event. “This project seeks the memories of ordinary people of all backgrounds.”

The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited. To reserve a spot, email Carrigan at carrigan@rowan.edu.

Rowan students currently are collecting recollections about Kennedy and the assassination from area citizens. Their interviews also will be included in the University Archives.

Kennedy’s 1960 inaugural address, in which he famously stated, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” resonated with millions, including many students at then-Glassboro State College (now Rowan University).

Through Operation Uganda in 1962, students joined together to support the independence of Uganda from British colonial rule. They collected 50,000 books to support education in Uganda and the institution hosted a celebration of independence that was attended by the governor, Senators, Congressmen, and 15 African ambassadors.

In celebration of Operation Uganda, Kennedy sent a telegram that read, in part: “I am indeed pleased that Glassboro State College and officials of the State of New Jersey are making such a positive contribution to celebrating the independence of Uganda, the newest member of the world community of free nations. Our history as a nation shows the close relationship between education and freedom. People-to-people contacts such as those which you are promoting demonstrate once again the warm concern of Americans for the welfare of the emerging nations of Africa.”

“Kennedy’s words resonated in southern New Jersey and led, if indirectly, to one of the most ambitious humanitarian efforts ever attempted in the region: Operation Uganda,” Carrigan says. “His death less than three years later shocked and saddened all of South Jersey.”