Richmond remembers JFK assassination

The usual hustle and bustle of the day took a turn when the news began to trickle in. One by one, shoppers and workers began to turn their attention to the television display.

Those closest began to huddle in front of the wall of various-sized sets. Moments later, about a hundred people stood silent and motionless as a Dallas reporter delivered the news in a broken voice: President John F. Kennedy was dead.

“A small gray-haired woman carrying a shopping bag set it down and looked at her watch. It was 2:15 p.m. She had been watching the television set for 15 or 20 minutes, hearing about the attempt at assassination,” Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter Charles McDowell Jr. reported. “Now, tears came into her eyes, and she picked up her shopping bag and walked away quickly.”

Wednesday marks 60 years since Kennedy was struck down while riding in a Lincoln Continental convertible through the streets of Dallas in a seismic event that stunned the nation and world. In a Times-Dispatch report titled “Shocked, Numbed Richmond Hears the News,” McDowell Jr. wrote about how Richmonders responded to the assassination.

Inside the department store, people remained close to televisions waiting for any news to come in. They watched as a clergyman in Dallas prepared a prayer for the crowds who had just waved to the president. When he began his prayer, those in the store bowed their heads.

At the old St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church on Franklin Street, people began to file in and kneel at the altar.

A taxicab driver at the bus terminal had learned of the initial reports, but not of the president’s death. Then, while stopped at a traffic light at Fourth and Broad streets, he heard the news from the radio of the car next to him.

At Maggie Walker High School, Principal Harry Williams was charged with informing students. After writing out a message and sending runners to each classroom, he watched three girls cry on the stairs. Others volunteered to help the head custodian lower the flag to half staff.

In a little restaurant near Byrd Park, the usually boisterous crowd fell silent as they listened to the broadcast of reporter Charles Collingwood outlining the tragic events in Dallas.

“For a while the only sound other than from the television was the sloshing as a waitress washed dishes behind the counter,” the Saturday, Nov. 23, 1963, edition of The Times-Dispatch read.

That silence continued across the city. In the barbershop of Hotel John Marshall, all chairs were turned towards the television set. The only other sounds were the clicking of scissors and the occasional buzz of electric clippers, McDowell reported.

Most activities scheduled that Friday night were called off or postponed.

While Richmond and the state favored Republican Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, Kennedy held stock within the city’s Black population as his campaign championed civil rights. Many of the early memorials held in the city were on behalf of Black leaders.

The Richmond Crusade for Voters organized an impromptu memorial at the steps of the state capital. There, 500 people mourned the late president and heard prayers and speeches from those with several religious and civil rights organizations. Among the attendees were former City Council member and prominent civil rights activist Oliver Hill.

Lynda Byrd-Harden, former secretary of the Virginia chapter of the NAACP, was at Mount Olive Elementary School in King William County when she learned of Kennedy’s assassination. In a 30th anniversary report issued in the Tuesday, Nov. 23, 1993, edition of The Times-Dispatch, Byrd Harden recalled children running and screaming from classrooms when news of the killing was heard.

“I think one of the most disappointing things for people of my generation, was that we think we may have missed all the opportunities to make a difference,” Byrd-Harden said. “What John Kennedy symbolized was peace and hope, the hope that people would work together in peace and harmony.”