Penultimate stop
Immediately before his fatal journey to Dallas in November 1963, President John F. Kennedy visited Tampa. His tour of the Southern US states was staged as a preliminary to the planned re-election campaign for 1964. Although Florida and Texas at the time were solidly Democratic Party states, many within the party’s southern factions were wavering over civil rights issues and opposing the extension of voting rights. JFK wanted to allay those southern fears. In the event, Texan Lyndon B. Johnson as JFK’s successor pushed through the Civil Rights Bill in 1965. But the resulting southern resentment led many Democrats to switch allegiances to the Republican Party, which has held sway in the South for most recent years.
Tampa commemorated President Kennedy’s visit with this memorial along the former Lafayette Boulevard, now renamed Kennedy Boulevard. The University of Tampa and former Tampa Bay Hotel provides the backdrop.
Penultimate stop
Immediately before his fatal journey to Dallas in November 1963, President John F. Kennedy visited Tampa. His tour of the Southern US states was staged as a preliminary to the planned re-election campaign for 1964. Although Florida and Texas at the time were solidly Democratic Party states, many within the party’s southern factions were wavering over civil rights issues and opposing the extension of voting rights. JFK wanted to allay those southern fears. In the event, Texan Lyndon B. Johnson as JFK’s successor pushed through the Civil Rights Bill in 1965. But the resulting southern resentment led many Democrats to switch allegiances to the Republican Party, which has held sway in the South for most recent years.
Tampa commemorated President Kennedy’s visit with this memorial along the former Lafayette Boulevard, now renamed Kennedy Boulevard. The University of Tampa and former Tampa Bay Hotel provides the backdrop.