JFK's Legacy

History, 20th Century World, Age 14-16

The impact of JFK's death on America and good and bad points about his presidency. Part of WJEC GCSE History specification (USA 1929-2000)


1Study this picture:Who?What?Where?When?Why?This is Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in as President on Air Force One.2Two hours earlier, JFK had been shot dead as his car drove through Dallas.3The nation was horrified at this picture of recently widowed Jackie Kennedy watching the ceremony. Her clothes were still stained with the blood of her dead husband.4Upon hearing of JFK's assassination, the nation and world went into a period of shocked mourning. While Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office, a twenty-four-year-old ex-Marine named Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder. 5Two days later, Oswald was shot by a Dallas nightclub owner named Jack Ruby. 6President Johnson then commission, headed by Earl Warren, to investigate the assassination. The "Warren Commission" Report, not published until September of 1964, concluded that Oswald was almost certainly the only gunman, and "found no evidence" that the killer "was part of any conspiracy, domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy."