On Friday, November 22, 1963, newspaper photographer BobJackson was assigned to photograph President John F. Kennedy's visit to Dallas for The Dallas Times Herald. What began as an exciting assignment for the young photographer became one of the largest, most tumultuous news events of the twentieth century—with Jackson, camera in hand, present at the center of much of the activity. More than four decades later his black and white images provide a unique personal perspective of the events at Love Field, along the motorcade route, at Parkland Memorial Hospital and at Dallas police headquarters, where he photographed Jack Ruby fatally shooting accused presidential assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
A Photographer's Story: Bob Jackson and the Kennedy Assassination is on display in the seventh floor gallery through October 17, 2010.
The Aftermath: In the year following the Kennedy assassination, Jackson won many awards for his famous picture. In March 1964, he was called to testify before the Warren Commission in Washington D.C., as an assassination eyewitness. Although subpoenaed to appear for both the prosecution and the defense in the Jack Ruby trial in Dallas in the spring of 1964, Jackson was never called to the stand. He did, however, cover the "trial of the century" as a photographer for The Dallas Times Herald.
Jackson worked as a newspaper photographer in Dallas from the early 1960s into the 1970s, and his photography tells a larger story than just the weekend of the assassination. As a photographer, Jackson was a professional observer. His "everyday" news images taken for the Times Herald both before and after the assassination shed light on a period when Dallas began to evaluate and reconstruct its international image in the aftermath of the traumatic death of President Kennedy.
Through both well-known and rarely-seen black-and-white photographs, artifacts and film footage, A Photographer's Story sets the events of the assassination weekend in the context of Jackson's four-decade career in photojournalism. Jackson's most famous photograph is seared into the collective memory of the Kennedy assassination weekend. Yet, his other images from those dramatic four days provide a more complete portrait of the turmoil and emotion of those events. In 2008, while reflecting on his extraordinary career, Jackson said, "The Pulitzer Prize image will last a long time. I was just on a pretty routine assignment that turned into an historical event. I was just fortunate to be able to cover it. In the end, I want to be remembered not just for one picture, but for a career where I tried to do my best on any and every assignment."
