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Moments in Memory: Impacts of Kennedy assassination linger 55 years later

In this Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, photo, seen through the foreground convertible's windshield, President John F. Kennedy's hand reaches toward his head within seconds of being fatally shot as first lady Jacqueline Kennedy holds his forearm as the motorcade proceeds along Elm Street past the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. Gov. John Connally was also shot.
In this Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, photo, seen through the foreground convertible's windshield, President John F. Kennedy's hand reaches toward his head within seconds of being fatally shot as first lady Jacqueline Kennedy holds his forearm as the motorcade proceeds along Elm Street past the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. Gov. John Connally was also shot. In this Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, photo, seen through the foreground convertible's windshield, President John F. Kennedy's hand reaches toward his head within seconds of being fatally shot as first lady Jacqueline Kennedy holds his forearm as the motorcade proceeds along Elm Street past the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. Gov. John Connally was also shot.

By Davis Lundy 6 min read

photo President John F. Kennedy is slumped down in the back seat of this car immediately after being shot in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Jacqueline Kennedy leans over the president at right as a Secret Service agent stands on the bumper at left.

Jim Hall looks back on the 55 years since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas and wonders if the country has ever been the same.

Hall, a well-known Signal Mountain resident, lawyer and veteran of the Vietnam War, was the chairman of the National Transportation and Safety Board for seven years, from 1994 to 2001. Prior to that, he worked in the cabinet of Tennessee Gov. Ned McWherter and as chief of staff for Democratic Sen. Harlan Matthews. Hall served on the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees and on the board of the University of Chattanooga Foundation at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Hall was 21 years old and in class at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville when President John F. Kennedy was killed on Nov. 22, 1963. As he walked to his car in a parking lot behind the administration building, he heard the president had been shot. By the time Hall got to a fraternity house with a television, Kennedy at been pronounced dead.

“I think it was the first, internal shattering moment in the United States,” said Hall. “Everything had been about the end of the Korean war and other foreign relations issues. All of a sudden, everyone became uneasy.

“The country was in shock for a period of time, and some would say that the shock has never ended. We seem to have gone from one violent event to another. The stability the country felt after the war and under Eisenhower ended that day.”