First director of the jfk library. He was a member of the Kennedy Administration. It is a special pride that he would share it would glow in him, in his advocacy for the importance of the Kennedy Administration and the many treasures we had inside our building. I love this photograph of the building, it is a nighttime vision. For those who have not yet come to see us, i believe the library is inspirational in and of itself and fitting for the life and times and ideas of an inspirational president , the 35th president , president kennedy. If you are able to come to visit us, you will see this building. We are right on Columbia Point facing towards Boston Harbor and it is a sight that will elevate your thoughts, and as you think about what the nation is all about and your role in it and whether you would answer president kennedys call to service, which he issued in his inaugural address, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. All of those words reverberate throughout the building and i think everyone who comes through is changed by it. If we go to the next slide, you see what was in the background on the first slide, a flag. You would come through the museum and experience a lot of president kennedys origin story, his campaign, his debates against the other candidate, richard nixon. You get the opportunity to really experience who he was through the magic of video and audio clips and props, in terms of things that were part of the administration and achievements therein. You would experience all of that and then come out into this atrium. President kennedy himself did not want to have the focus be on busts or portraits of himself. It was felt that the flag of the United States would simply represent the presidency. You would enter this atrium, which is also a memorial space for a fallen president , and reflect upon his life and perhaps ask yourself, what if . What if he had lived out his life and served certainly the duration of his term . What could have been . You could reflect on whether you would answer his call to service. How might you, either locally or nationally, serve the greater interest to create a more just and Peaceful World . All of that, i think, is part of the experience of our library and i look forward to reopening and welcoming people from around the nation and around the world to enter with us. It is exciting that we are now reflecting on the 19th amendment and the historic milestones that led up to it and the reverberations of that amendment beyond that. President kennedys administration and their role in advancing womens rights in the nation. It is an exciting thing. Thank you for having me here to speak on that. As you can see from this slide, jfk and womens rights, it was a truly major part of president kennedys platform as a candidate. He spoke eloquently about the importance of womens rights and all human rights. He got bogged down in a lot of issues. I think all presidencies involve a learning curve and the National Issues that pop up are traditionally unpredictable. We can move onto the next slide. In 1960, this is the historic context, women make up a third of the countrys work force. They earn only . 60 on every dollar earned by men. Unlike some of his predecessors, president kennedy did not appoint that many positions in the Kennedy Administration to women and did not have any women in the cabinet itself. You can flip to the next slide. I think there is a great clip, and many of us have watched it many times, where one of the reporters, may craig, on november 8, 1961, asks president kennedy, the democratic platform on which you ran promises to work for equal rights for women, including equal pay, and to wipe out job opportunity discriminations. Now you have made efforts on behalf of others, but what have you done for the women, according to the promises of the platform . I will say that president kennedys answer, while witty in the moment and is wellregarded in the moment, i think there is a play within a play here because his answer is, well, i am sure we have not done enough , and there is laughter in the audience. I am a strong supporter of equal pay for equal work and we should do better, and im glad you have reminded me of that, mrs. Craig. I think if it had been left by itself, it could have been interpreted as a dismissive answer, but i think what we see on the record as the followthrough following that brief question and answer, kennedys response does rise to the occasion and he does take it seriously. We can flip to the next slide. Youve got it there, kennedys response. Historians consider three Kennedy Administration initiatives to have been significant in furthering womens rights. Number one, the creation of the president s commission on the status of women. Number two, the order of prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender in hiring federal employees, and the signing of the equal pay act. The equal pay act was the First Federal legislation that sought to put women on an equal footing with men. We can go on to the next slide. This commission on the status of women is extremely important. At the urging of Esther Peterson, head of the womens bureau of the department of labor, kennedy creates the commission with executive order 10980 in 1961. As an interesting side note, if anyone is looking for a Research Project or wants to write a hollywood script, i think the womens bureau is a film worth making at some point. He appoints Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman of the commission and she served in this capacity until her death in 1962. Esther peterson was the vice chair and took over upon Eleanor Roosevelts passing. I would say that his relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt is one of the defining relationships of president kennedys presidency. Certainly, she is a major factor in his becoming president in the first place. He works very hard to get her support for him as a candidate. She is enamored with and very supportive of Adlai Stevenson earlier on, going into the democratic convention, and it is by the power of meeting with her in person at her residence in new york, coming out of that conversation, she comes around and sees the real kennedy, not just his social side, but the depth of his conviction and ideas, and i think it is wonderful that he appoints her as chairwoman of this commission. We can flip to the next slide. We have a picture here of Esther Peterson with president kennedy, the secretary of labor, arthur goldberg, and the chairman of the Civil Service commission, john macy, in december, 1961. We can flip to the next slide where he is meeting with the president s commission on the status of women, now underway here in february of 1962. We can flip to the next slide. I will pause here and say a few things. In april of 1962, Eleanor Roosevelt interviews him about the status of women. It starts out with some softball questions about what prompts president kennedy to form the commission, and he answers, clearly, we need to do better and the government needs to lead the way. Eleanor roosevelt then starts to dig a little deeper. Well, do better how . What exactly are we going to do about this . President kennedy, in some ways, says, i was looking forward to seeing the output from the commission to get guidance on where we should focus our efforts. I know that eleanor is not fully satisfied by that, but then she begins to answer his inquiries about where should we focus. She says one of the things we should focus on is childcare. If we cannot do better in terms of childcare, it will be difficult to have women more fully enter the labor force. Certainly, where other countries may have had more success in women fully entering the labor force, america, she felt, was behind some other countries. I should also add in terms of context, though this may seem like an obvious idea by todays standards, there are Many Political opponents during this time who felt women should be removed from the labor force altogether because it created a greater scarcity of jobs that might be available to men who wanted jobs in the labor force. I think an argument that a similar to some of the antiimmigration efforts going on today. These are not new arguments, they were not invented then, and will not go away anytime soon. I think president kennedys that if wehat is need to do better on the economy and grow the markets and the labor force overall, then let us focus on making a better and healthier, stronger economy for all such that while welcoming others into the labor force, we will grow the nation ever stronger. We can go on to the next slide. Ultimately, in response to the commission and its report, president kennedy does open more federal jobs and promotions for women. You can see here, a memorandum dated july 23, 1962. It is a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies on equal opportunity for women. Quote from that. Consideration for any career position must be made solely on the basis of merit and fitness. So, as we have seen from many other efforts to move our nation towards justice, making things legal or illegal is not the end of the road. A lot of work needs to happen beyond that to eliminate discrimination. But at least some of the legal groundwork is laid in that moment. We can move on to the next slide. Namely, the equal pay act signed in june of 1963. The act makes it illegal to discriminate based on gender in deciding employees wages. By the way, we have used the term here, discriminate based on gender. The actual historic term of the era was discrimination based on sex. Just for those interested in the historic language. In his remarks, kennedy noted that the act represents many years of effort to call attention to the unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job. This measure adds to our laws another structure basic to democracy while much remains to be done to achieve full equality of economic opportunity, for the average woman worker earns only 60 of the average wage for men, this legislation is a significant first step forward. As we know today, more steps need to be taken. But i think it is an interesting and exciting moment in time. We go to the next slide. We have the signing of the equal pay act on june 10, 1963. It is an interesting photograph and some might note, just by the window on the left side, it is clearly an africanamerican woman there and that is dorothy height, who was president of the National Council of negro women and served in that role from 1957 to 1997 and there for that historic moment. I think again, these are struggles that do not end on that moment and i think it is quite a shame and shocking for those who remember those moments. It is only a few months after the signing that president kennedy is assassinated and unable to Carry Forward the legacy even further. Lyndon johnson assumes the presidency and advances many elements of kennedys legacy from that point on. I just wanted to make sure people knew some of those historic facts. I encourage you to come to the library and learn more about it. As i said before, the womens bureau, i think, would make a terrific movie. All right. Patrick are we ready to jump into some questions . Alan yes. Would love to hear them. What do we have . Patrick i want to remind everyone that if you would like to ask a question on this or about the library, please put those on the chat box on youtube and we will put them in and try to get them in the queue for alan. Lets start with a couple of basic ones. One that im curious about, i will take moderators discretion and ask the first question. Alan feel free. Patrick in that United States over the last couple months. We have really been looking at legacy. Legacy of historic figures, president s, the founding and forward. What can you tell us about , whether it is historians or the public, that you are finding at the Kennedy Library people thinking about john f. Kennedys legacy . Has it been shifting . I think folks would be interested in hearing about that. Alan sure. I think many people point to some pretty concrete measures in terms of his legacy. The establishment of the peace corps as an agency, certainly an inspiring legacy for the thousands who have served as peace corps volunteers and returned with an even greater sense of Civic Responsibility to lead this nation. I think that the signing of the Nuclear Test Ban treaty and i would connect that to the peaceful resolution of the cuban missile crisis from which we have learned a tremendous amount and the subsequent putting into place things like a hot line between the white house and the kremlin to reduce the risk of Nuclear Escalation and other peacemaking efforts. I think that his rhetoric, in so many ways, has inspired generations, not only in america, but around the world. He was a beloved president. I would say that the entire Kennedy Family, ms. Kennedy is an inspiration, his brother bobby, his brother ted kennedy and their public service. The sisters, as well, did so many things from the Special Olympics to fighting injustice and pushing in the Civil Rights Era to senator kennedys longstanding championing of universal healthcare. S believe carry on the legacy of president kennedy and the Kennedy Family in incredibly powerful ways. Patrick thank you. Segue toctually a good one of our questions. Are there any members of the Kennedy Family involved with the library . Alan we have Caroline Kennedy and her husband, ed schlossberg, are very involved in the library foundation, which is very helpful in supporting the programming and efforts and outreach of the library. I would say caroline and eds daughter has recently joined the board of the Jfk Library Foundation and we are excited that a new generation is picking up the cause of how can we make sure that our repository is truly available to enrich citizens for another 40 years. Patrick are there any members of jfks cabinet still alive . Alan yes. With the passing of dan finn, very recently, there is at least one other and another prior serving member, that is chuck daly who was appointed to the Kennedy Administration in the summer of 1963. Obviously the administration did , not last much longer than that. But he is a living witness to those times. Patrick i think i saw him in that picture that you showed earlier. How many people i know you do a lot with School Groups. How many visitors does the museum have and researchers in a regular year . Alan in a regular year, we get about 250,000 visitors a year and about 15 of those are international visitors. The remaining 85 come from all over the nation. People are smart to make president ial libraries part of their family road trip and destinations. Some come by cruise ship. Many just come from many different countries, oftentimes with stories of their direct personal connection to why president kennedy was important to them. One of my favorite things to do is to stand in the lobby on different days and ask people, how did you come to choose this place and what did you think of it, and they tell me their stories of personal connection to president kennedy and it is marvelous. I should add, we have so many School Groups who come by the busload who are not even counted in that number. Now that we have had the pandemic disruption, weve had thousands participate in our programs virtually. Everything from education about the 35th president to Civic Education in general. We take great pride in fulfilling the mission that future generations should be inspired by the words and deeds of this president. Patrick we are very encouraged by the fact that the president ial library and archives in washington have quite a bit of demand for educational materials and resources, folks are turning to these trusted institutions to ground their teaching whether you are a new parent who has become a teacher or an actual certified teacher in the classroom. Quite a demand. Alan we put out a blast every tuesday to teachers, many of the middle school teachers, with care are with here are primary source materials and lesson plans to introduce many of these concepts to your classroom. We try to make it easy for teachers to incorporate these sections of history into their lesson plans. Patrick perfect. Let me see if i can make my way through a couple more questions. A couple researchrelated questions. I will bundle them and let you answer. Are there any more papers about the assassination that will be coming out, and secondary to that, what are researchers studying when they come to the library and the archives, if you can share general topics . Alan research is always happening with us. Though it is more challenging to do it in this pandemic, telework environment, we still respond to hundreds of researcher requests constantly. When researchers are with us and we are, i believe, the library that attracts the greatest number of researchers and researcher requests of the president ial libraries, we take great pride. Their Research Subjects are so varied. Last summer, we had a researcher with us for almost the entire summer who had come from italy and who was doing research on Bobby Kennedy because when bobby was doing investigations into the rackets, the organized crime, and as attorney general reorganized the department of justice in an interdisciplinary way to be able to anticipate and better respond the criminal activities of organized crime and he was the first to publicly name the mafia as an enemy of democracy in so many ways. Italy had not done that. So italy, in many ways, borrowed their model of better response from bobbys response. I found it fascinating that somebody from italy would go back into the 1960s, research Bobby Kennedy for answers to how we could do better in italy. So Many Research requests about mrs. Kennedy and not just about what she wore who she was and the role she played, her visit to india and things like that. So Many Research requests obviously, we have some greatest hits around the vietnam war, the cuban missile crisis, and things like that. But the process of declassifying documents continues to this day. As more things become declassified, researchers will have a constant stream of new things they will want to review and make sure the public is aware of because any administration can only really be thoroughly understood over the course of time. Patrick that is a good segue, we had a couple of questions come in about jackie kennedy. Do you all hold her papers as well . Let me ask a couple here. Was she an influence on his thinking about womens rights and legislation policy . I will let you start with those. Alan let me just point out, some will find a bit of this surprising. In the big picture, the archival collections we hold, obviously president kennedy and his administration, we hold the collection for mrs. Kennedy, we hold the collection for Bobby Kennedy and for ted kennedy, and we also have, and this is by interesting historic connection, the Ernest Hemingway collection, because when Ernest Hemingway passes away and Mary Hemingway cannot get his belongings and papers out of cuba and appeals to the Kennedy Administration for help, it is mrs. Kennedy who helps facilitate that and makes sure that she is able to get there and take one fishing boat worth of belongings back to the u. S. She asks Mary Hemingway, what are you going to do with this . Because Ernest Hemingway never went to university, there was no logical other place to hold his collection of papers and mrs. Kennedy said, when we build jacks president ial library, we would be honored to have his things with your husbands papers. That is particularly for hemingway scholars, that collection. A piece of it is open to the general public. That collection is primarily for real scholars of literature. That is a bit about some of the collections. The other piece of your question was about mrs. Kennedy in particular. Remind me again . Patrick are you aware of her influencing the conversation around womens issues, womens rights . Alan i think she had to have been a major influence for him. There are still many times where she does influence him. One of my favorites is they are together at a dinner to address a gathering of democrats and president kennedy has his written remarks of things he is going to say, he starts with the history of the democratic party, etc. You can see beyond the written remarks that he has written in his own scribble, he has difficult handwriting to read, he passes a note to ms. Kennedy, what is that quote from ulysses . And mrs. Kennedy, verbatim, writes out a quote from ulysses. When president kennedy stands up to deliver his remarks, at the end of his remarks, he is quoting ulysses as if he knew it by heart but it is really mrs. Kennedy who knew it by heart because she was, at least in her earlier years, a far more serious student. I think president kennedy becomes serious later in life , but early in life, it is clear that mrs. Kennedy and her classical education, she was a far more serious student and remembers that poetry by heart. Patrick hopefully this is not a trick question for you. Any recommendations of a good book on jfk . Alan there are several really good books on jfk. Im going to mention one that should be coming out Early September, because a noted harvard historian has written several fantastic books and has attempted to put together the definitive and comprehensive two volume set on president kennedy. Volume one, it is a gross injustice to summarize it this way, it is the earlier years and origin story. There will be a volume two covering specifically the administration. Volume one is coming out Early September and i am very excited to see it. I have talked with fred a number of times about this. I think he does a very comprehensive, fair, and balanced approach to the subject and i am looking forward to reading what this noted historian has done with it. Patrick terrific. Thank you for that recommendation. We have a couple of questions about the museum. I had the benefit of being there a few times. We have a question about the space program. What kinds of objects, artifacts, and documents. I know we dont have images, but talk about some of the galleries if they have never been to a president ial library before, what they might experience as they make their way through. Alan two things i would point out, and they are connected objects that we have on display, though they are separated by a good bit of distance. Early on, as you begin your tour through the museum, you would see a good bit about president kennedys origin story, his younger years, but then it quickly goes into his World War Ii Service record and his service on pt 109 in particular. A lot of people dont appreciate that president kennedy was notably ill for most of his life, had multiple illnesses. His father joked that jack was so sickly that if a mosquito would bite him, the mosquito would certainly die. He just seemed to be sick all the time. And yet, when it was time for world war ii, jack wanted to enlist and he was initially refused and turned down for military service. He prevailed upon his father to intervene. He really wanted to serve. He was accepted into the navy and assigned a desk job. He asked his father to intervene again because he must go to the front and he was assigned to pt 109 in the Pacific Theater and served admirably there. For those who dont know, pt boats are, compared to the larger ships, incredibly small. They are 60 feet long. They are wooden ships with a light metal hull to repel small arms fire. Pt stands for patrol and torpedo. They would try to swarm and disrupt the enemys supply chains as best they could. In the middle of the night, there was a collision between the japanese destroyer amagiri and pt 109. Two members of the pt 109 crew were killed in that collision. The others managed to swim to safety. There is a lot of backandforth i find fascinating between president kennedy and the commander of the amagiri. They correspond and maintain a relationship for the rest of their lives. It is extraordinary. The commander of the amagiri actually comes to the u. S. To campaign for kennedy when he is running for the presidency. There was that moment just prior to the collision when the commander of the amagiri instructs his helmsmen to avoid collision for the practical reality that if you collide with a torpedo boat, it could hurt your boat. But the helmsmen does not follow the order and the commander later courtmartials the helmsmen. He really did not want to have that collision. President kennedy, there was a prior injury to his back, disc problems from harvard football. He sustains further injury to his back in that collision, but manages to grab the lifejacket of another sailor and begins swimming to an island and the rest of the crew follow and they survive for six days before local Indigenous People spot them and teach them that they can inscribe a note on a coconut husk, which president kennedy does. It says, 11 alive, we are on an island, need a small boat, kennedy. The local folks there swim that coconut husk to an australian ship offshore which relayed the message to the navy who thought all were lost. Now they know folks are alive and where to look and they are rescued. President kennedys father has that husk preserved as a paperweight and we have that paperweight as one of the very first exhibits in our library. People can see, were it not for that, president kennedy would not have been rescued and much later in our exhibit, we have this marvelous gesture on peace and reconciliation upon president kennedys inauguration. It is a letter from the still living members of the ship, the amagiri, who congratulate him on becoming president and they all sign it. I love that we have those both on display. Patrick that is wonderful. Great connecting points between objects and documents. A perfect example of what the archive and president ial libraries do quite well. We have a few more minutes. I have a closing question for you. I have a followup question, did kennedy collaborate with lbj on any of the womens rights policies that you referenced or other ones that might not have come to fruition . Alan i am not a great expert on lbj and the details of how he carries forward the agenda. Though i think there are many obvious admirable and obvious conclusions that can be drawn. Here is what i will offer as the best answer to the question. Come to our library, look at the documents yourself, the library is here for you, the people, and we would be happy to share the original documents with you so you can see the full texture and nuance and reach your own conclusion. Patrick wonderful. Just to close out, i think it is nice to hear about some work you might be doing either with other president ial libraries or what you have planned in 2021, things that might be coming forward that folks can look forward to when they can come and visit in person. Any major exhibits or initiatives that folks should be keeping an eye out for . Alan absolutely. This coming spring, april of 2021, we will be opening a temporary exhibit focused on childhood in the white house and what was the experience of caroline and john junior going up in the white house. There havent been children growing up in the white house since Teddy Roosevelts time. The challenges that mrs. Kennedy faced in trying to give them a normal childhood in spite of the fact that there was incredible media scrutiny on everything they did. That will be one. And then the following spring of 2022, we will do a much more expanded look at world war ii, the naval campaigns, and we will start with pt 109, but we will build out from there to the Pacific Theater and ultimately where there is as many people have seen in the Vietnam Memorial in d. C. , the names, we will display in our pavilion, the names of all the fallen in world war ii. I hope it will be a significant destination for veterans and their families and all students of history. I think it is going to be a powerful presentation. Patrick very impressive. This has been wonderful, learning about the womens connection, womens policy connection, legislation as we run up to the anniversary next week, the 19th amendment. We are delighted to have you as part of our series. Alan thank you so much, patrick. Can i end with a quote . Patrick please. Alan at the 1979 dedication of our library, thenpresident carter was a speaker who came for the dedication. There is a piece i would like to read, which is, this library, this repository of facts and ideas, will feed history with a permanent record of the dreams of John Fitzgerald kennedy and also the realization of those dreams. In america, the records of a great political leader will not be threatened by succeeding political regimes which might fear them because we are a nation committed not only to freedom, but also to the pursuit of truth. I just love those words. Patrick that is a wonderful closing. Thank you for your time. Much to think about and hopefully inspire our viewers to come see you. You guys have a terrific website with lots of resources for folks to explore the kennedy legacy and the administration. Alan patrick, thank you. Patrick absolutely. Is airingn history tv coverage of president ial races. Sunday, debates from the 1992 president ial campaign between president bush, ross perot, and governor bill clinton, and a 1996 campaign between president clinton and former senator bob dole. Here is a preview. I would like to direct my question to mr. Perrault. What will you do as president to open foreign markets to fair competition from American Business and to stop unfair competition at home from Foreign Countries so that we can bring jobs back to the United States . That is at the top of my agenda. We have shipped millions of jobs overseas and we have a strange situation because we have a process in washington where after you have served, you become a freud lobbyist, make 30,000 a month, then work on president or campaigns, make sure you have good contacts, then go back out. If you want to get out of brass tacks, you ought to get these people who have these oneway trade agreements that we have negotiated, say, we will take the same deal we gave you and they bill gridlock at that point. Weve got International Competitors who could not unload their cars off the ships if they had to comply. If it was a twoway street, could not do it. We have got to stop sending jobs overseas. To those in the audience who are business people, pretty simple. If you are paying 14 an hour for factory workers and you can move your factory south of the border, pay a dollar an hour, higher gunk that is assuming you have a mature workforce, a one dollar an hour for your labor, have no health care, that is the most expensive element, have no environmental controls, no pollution controls, no retirement, and you dont care about anything but picking money, there will be a sucking sound going south. Washington,nd me to bible study that agreement and make sure it is a twoway street. I called a whos who of people who have been around it, we will be destructive, for how long . I got them for 15 years and sit, how does it stop being disruptive . When their jobs, or one dollar an hour to six dollars an hour and hours go down to six dollars an hour it is level to, but in the meantime, you have wrecked the country with these deals. Watch the full debate sunday at 11 00 a. M. Eastern, 8 00 a. M. Pacific on American History tv. Next, on the civil war, the Gettysburg CollegeCivil War Institute hosts an online discussion about how interpretation has changed over the years at the courthouse National Historical park. About hertalks experience working for the National Park service at fredericksburg than appomattox and what she highlights to visitors. They Gettysburg CollegeCivil War Institute provided the video for this event. Minutes, the author of Civil War Monuments and the militarization of america discusses his book with Gregory Downs and coeditors of the journal of the civil war era. They examine the social and political movements that influenced Civil War Monument at 8 00 p. M. , university of utah Political Science professor David Buehler teaches a class about president ial debates and their influence on voters. Most people have these nostalgic memories of being taken to battlefields as children, and that is not my story. My family visited some historic sites, but not really. When i got to about high school and was considering a lot of