Dallas 1963

Not everyone in 1963 Dallas hated John F. Kennedy, but unfortunately the power brokers there who controlled politics, the media, and business did. In this absorbing account, Minutaglio (Sch. of Journalism, Univ. of Texas at Austin; First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty) and Davis (Witcliff Collections, Texas State Univ., San Marcos; J. Frank Dobie: A Liberated Mind) reveal how those such as billionaire oil man H.L. Hunt; the Rev. Wallie Amos Criswell of the Dallas First Baptist Church; Ted Dealey, editor of the Dallas Morning News; GOP congressman Bruce Alger; and Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker, united by their hatred of liberals, socialism, communism, and civil rights, welcomed right-wing radical movements, reinforced segregation, and stirred up contempt for the president. Together, they fanned the anger of their legions and made 1963 Dallas a city that Kennedy had been warned by Adlai Stevenson and Lyndon Johnson not to visit. However, not all of Dallas's leaders were against JFK. The authors portray Stanley Marcus, manager of the Neiman Marcus department store, sympathetically as a wealthy man who worked hard to bring integration and the arts to Dallas. The Rev. H. Rhett James and Juanita Craft of the NAACP toiled tirelessly for civil rights despite recurring death threats against them.