Provided the video. Alan one of the joys of my position is there is a heritage to president ial libraries and all of the prior directors of the jfk President Library and museum have been mentors to me, as i have taken on the role. We have announced to the community as a couple of days ago the passing of the very first director of the jfk library. Dan was a member of the Kennedy Administration. It is a special pride that he would share it would glow in him, his advocacy of the importance of the Kennedy Administration and the many treasures we had in our building. I love this photograph of the building, it is nighttime. For those who have not yet come to see us, i believe the library is inspirational in itself and fitting for the life and times and ideas of an inspirational president , the 35th president , president kennedy. Us, youre able to visit will see this building, it is facing toward boston harbor. It is a site that will elevate your thoughts, and as you think about what the nation is all about and your role and 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 ask 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, we see what was in the background on the first slide, a flag. You come through the museum and experience a lot of president kennedys origin story, his campaign, his debates against the other candidate, richard nixon. There is an opportunity to really experience who he was through the magic of video and audio clips and things that were part of the administration and achievements therein. You experience all of that and then come out into this atrium. President kennedy himself did not want the focus to be on busts or portraits of himself. It was felt the flag of the United States would simply represent the presidency. You enter the atrium, which is also a memorial space for a fallen president , and reflect upon his life and perhaps ask yourself 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 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, this 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 truly a 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 one third of the countrys labor force but earned 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. I think there is a great clip, and many of us have watched it many times, where one of the reporters on november 8, 1961, make ragged asks president kennedy the democratic platform on which you ran promises to work for equal 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 discrimination. Now you have made efforts on behalf of others, but what have you done for the women according to the promises of the platform . And i will say that president kennedys answer, while witty in the moment and wellregarded in the moment, i think there is a play within a play here because his answer as 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. 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 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 equal footing with men. 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 kennedymedy labor, creates the commission with the executive order in 1961. As a side note, if anyone is looking for a Research Project or wants to write a hollywood script, 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 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 worked very hard to get her support for him as a candidate. She is enamored with and very supportive of Adlai Stevenson early on, going into the democratic convention. It is by the power of meeting with her in person at her residence in new york, coming out of that conversation, i think she comes around and sees the real kennedy. Side, butis social the depth of his conviction and ideas, and i think it is wonderful that he appoints her as chairwoman of this commission. We have a picture of Esther Peterson with president kennedy, the secretary of labor and the chairman of the Civil Service commission. This is december, 1961. The next slide, 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 and 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, what prompts president kennedy to form the commission . 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. 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 you 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 entering the labor force, america was behind some other countries, she felt. I should also add in terms of context, this may seem like the obvious idea, there are Many Political opponents during this time who felt that 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 is similar to some of the antiimmigration efforts going on today, these are not new arguments. They were not invented then. They will not go away anytime soon. I think president kennedys answer to that is that if we 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 and stronger economy for all such that while welcoming others into the labor force, we will grow the nation ever stronger. 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, july 23, 1962, and it is a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies on equal opportunity for women. A quote from that, consideration for any career position must be made solely on the basis of merit and fitness. And 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 onto 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 for the slide, discriminate based on gender. The actual historic term of that era was discrimination based on sex, so just for those interested in the historic language. In his remarks, kennedy noted 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 and other structure basic to democracy while much remains to be done to achieve fully equality, this legislation is a significant first step forward. As we know today, more steps need to be taken, but i think it is an exciting moment in time. If you go to the next slide, we have the signing of the equal pay act on june 10, 1963. Its an interesting photograph and some might note just by the window on the left side, there is clearly an africanamerican woman and that is dorothy, who was president of the National Council of negro women, for that historic moment. I think that, again, these are struggles that do not end on that moment. It is quite a shame and it was shocking for those who were who remember these moments, but it was only a few months after this signing that president kennedy is assassinated and unable to Carry Forward the legacy. So Lyndon Johnson assumes the presidency and advances many elements of kennedys legacy from that point on. I wanted to make sure people knew some of those historic facts. I encourage you to come to the library and learn more about it. Before that womens bureau, i said before, that would make a terrific movie. Are we ready to jump into some questions . If you would like to ask a question about this or on the library, please put those in the chat box on youtube. We will put them in and we will try and get them in the queue. Lets start with a couple basic ones. In theam curious about, United States over the last couple months, we will be looking at legacy of historical figures. What can you tell us that you are finding at the Kennedy Library, that people are thinking about kennedys legacy . Has it been shifting in the last couple months, the last couple years . Folks will be interested in hearing about that. Alan i think many people point to some pretty concrete measures in terms of the 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 leave this nation. I think the signing of the Nuclear Test Ban treaty, and i would connect that in some ways with the peaceful resolution of the cuban missile crisis from which we 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 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 family,family comedy mrs. Kennedy, as an example, his brother bobby, ted, 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 health care. All those things i believe carry on the legacy of president kennedy and the Kennedy Family in incredibly powerful ways. Patrick wonderful. Thank you. Thats a good segue to one of our questions. Are there any members of the Kennedy Family involved with library . Alan we have Caroline Kennedy and her husband, they are involved in the jfk Library Foundation. That is very helpful in supporting the programming and efforts and outreach of the library. And i would say caroline and eds daughter, tatyana, has recently joined the board of the 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, global citizens, for another 40 years . Patrick are there any members of jfks cabinet still alive . Alan yes. With the passing of dan very recently, there is at least one other and another prior serving member, chuck daly. Uck was appointed to the Kennedy Administration in the summer of 1963 and 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 the picture that you showed. I know you do a lot with School Groups and students. How many visitors does the museum have and researchers in a regular year . Lets take this year out of the equation. Alan in a regular year, we get about 250,000 visitors a year and 15 of those are International Visitors and the remaining 85 from all over the lake should over the nation. People who are smart to make president ial libraries part of their family road trip destinations. Some come by cruise ship but many come from many different ofntries often with stories direct personal connection with why the president was important to them. One of my favorite things to do is stand in the lobby on different days and ask for, you know, how did you come to choose this place, what did you think of it . They tell me their stories of personal connection to president kennedy, and it is marvelous. I should add that we have so many School Groups who come by the busload that are not even counted in that number, and now that we have had the pandemic disruption, we have had thousands of people participate in our programs virtually. Everything from education about the 35th president to Civics Education in general, but we take great pride in fulfilling the mission that future generations should be inspired by the words and deeds of this president. We are encouraged by the fact that the president ial library and archives headquarters in washington, quite a bit of demand for the educational materials and the resources people are turning to where they ground their teaching, whether you are a new parent who has become a teacher or an actual certified teacher in the classroom, so i imagine theres a demand. Blast every out a tuesday for teachers, many of them schoolteachers. This is a primary source materials and lesson plans to introduce many of these concepts to your classrooms. We try to make it easy for teachers to incorporate these sections of history into their lesson plans. Patrick let me see if i can make my way through a couple more questions here. Research related questions. Are there any more papers about the Jfk Assassination that would be coming out and then 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. It is more challenging to do it in this pandemic telework environment, we still respond to hundreds of researcher requests constantly. And 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 library, we take pride. Their subjects are so varied. You know, last summer we had a researcher with us for 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, that is, the organized crime, as attorney general, reorganized the department of justice to be able to anticipate and better respond to the criminal activities of organized crime. 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, so i find it fascinating that somebody from italy would go back into the 1960s, research Bobby Kennedy for answers to how can we do better than italy . Thats terrific. So Many Research requests about mrs. Kennedy, about who she was and the role she played, and her visits to india and things like that. So Many Research requests. We have some greatest hits around the vietnam war and the cuban missile crisis, 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 that the public is aware of because any administration can only really be thoroughly understood over the course of time. Patrick thats a good segue because we had a couple questions come in about jackie kennedy. Do you all hold her papers as well . Was she an influence on this thinking about legislation policy . I will let you start with those. Alan let me just point out, some will find a bit of this surprising. 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 ted kennedy. And we also have, by interesting historic connection, the Ernest Hemingway collection, because when Ernest Hemingway passes away and his wife 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 make sure she is able to take one fishing boat worth of belongings back to the u. S. And she asks mary hemingway, what are you going to do with this . Hemingwayy because never went to university, there was no other logical place to hold his collection of papers. Mrs. Kennedy said when we built jacks president ial library, we would be honored to have his things with your husbands papers. Thats particularly for hemingway scholars. That collection, a piece of it is open to the general public, but that collection is primarily for real scholars of literature. Thats a bit about some of the collections. The other piece of your question was about kennedy in particular. Remind me again. Patrick are you aware of her influencing legislation around womens issues and womens rights . Alan one can surmise pretty easily that she had to have been a major influence for him. Theres so many times when she does influence him. One of my favorites is that they are together at a dinner to address a gathering of democrats , and president kennedy has his written remarks of things hes going to say, the history of the democratic party, etc. And you can see beyond these remarks that he has written in his own scribble, and he has difficult handwriting to read, to mrs. Kennedy that quote from ulysses, and ites out a quote from ulysses so when president kennedy stands up to deliver his remarks, he is at the end of his remarks quoting ulysses as if he knew it by heart. She was at least in her earlier years the far more serious student. President kennedy becomes a serious student later in life, but early in life, it is clear that misses kennedy and her classical education, she was a far more serious student and remembers that by heart. Atrick hopefully this is not trick question. Any recommendations on a good book on jfk . Alan there are several really good books. Im going to mention one that should be coming out in Early September. A noted harvard historian who has written several fantastic books, has attempted to put together the definitive and comprehensive two volume set on president kennedy, volume one to summarize it this way, it is the earlier years. There will be a volume two covering specifically the administration. Volume one i believe is coming out in Early September and i am very excited to see it. I talked with Fred Logevall a number of times about this and 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. Terrific. Patrick thank you for that recommendation. I had a couple questions about the museum. I had the benefit of being there a few times so i have a question about the space program, what kind of objects or artifacts, documents. I know we dont have images of it, but talk about some of the galleries, if they have never been to a president ial library before, what folks 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. In terms of square footage, they are separated i a good distance. By a good instance. Early on, 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. His service on pt 109 in particular, a lot of people do not appreciate that president kennedy was notably ill for much 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 seemed to be sick all the time. Yet when it was time for world war ii, jack really wanted to enlist and he was initially 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 had his father intervene because he must go to the front , and he was assigned to pt 109. He served admirably in the Pacific Theater. For those who dont know, compared to the larger ships, they are incredibly small. They are wooden ships with a light metal hull around it to repel small arms. They would try and swarm and disrupted the enemy supply chains as best they could. In the middle of the night, there was a collision between the japanese destroyer and pt 109. Two members of the crew were lost in that collision and killed in that collision and the others managed to swim to safety. Theres a lot of back and forth i find fascinating between president kennedy and the commander. They correspond and maintain a relationship for the rest of their lives. It is extraordinary. The commander 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 instructs his helmsmen to avoid collision through the practical reality that if you collide with a torpedo, 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, but president kennedy manages with the prior injury to his back, problems from his harvard football, he sustains further injury to his back, but manages to grab the lifejacket of another sailor and begins swimming to an island and the rest of the crew follow. They survive for six days before local Indigenous People teach them they can inscribe a note on a coconut husk which president kennedy does and says we are on this island. Need a small boat. Kennedy. The local folks swim the coconut husk to an australian ship offshore, which relays the message to the u. S. Navy, who thought all were lost in the collision. They know folks are alive and they know where to look and they are rescued. President kennedys father has that k preserved as a paperweight, and we have that paperweight as one of the first exhibits in our library. People can see, were it not for that, president kennedy would not have been rescued. Much later, we have this gesture of peace and reconciliation. Upon his inauguration, it is a letter from the still living members of the ship who congratulate him on becoming president. They all sign it. I love that we have those both on display. Patrick wonderful. Great connecting points between objects and documents. Perfect example of the archives. I have a closing question for you. I have a followup question about did kennedy collaborate with lbj on any of the womens rights policies you referenced or other ones that might not have come to fruition . Alan i am not a great expert on lbj and the details on how he carries forward the agenda, i think there are many admirable and obvious conclusions that could be drawn. Here is what i would 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 collisions conclusions. 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 planned. Lets have our fingers crossed in 2021, things that might be coming forward that the Kennedy Library folks can look forward when they can come and visit in person, any major exhibits or initiatives folks should be watching for. Alan absolutely. This coming spring, we will be opening a temporary exhibit focused on childhood in the white house and what was the experience of caroline and john junior growing up in the white house . There had not been children growing up in the white house since Teddy Roosevelts son and the challenges mrs. Kennedy faced in trying to give them a normal childhood in spite of the fact that there was incredible media scrutiny on everything that they did. That will be one. 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 to the Pacific Theater and ultimately, where there is as many people have seen in the vietnam memorial, the names, we are going to display in our pavilion, which is our memorial space, 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 its going to be a very powerful presentation. It sounds very impressive. This has been wonderful learning about camelot, learning about the womens connection, legislation, as we run up to the anniversary next week, the 19th amendment. We are really delighted to have you as part of our series. Alan alan thank you so much, patrick. Can i end a quote . At the dedication of our library, president carter was a speaker who came for the dedication. Theres just an excerpt of that 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 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. Patrick that is a wonderful closing. Thank you again for your time. Much to think about. Hopefully inspire our viewers to come see you when the opportunity is there. I know you guys have a terrific website. Lots of resources for folks to explore the kennedy legacy and administration. Alan thank you. Patrick absolutely. 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