Details:

John F. Kennedy Texas Welcome Dinner program accompanied by the complete printed texts of the two speeches prepared for delivery on November 22, 1963, the day of his assassination. The group includes the official Texas Welcome Dinner program for the evening banquet scheduled at the Municipal Auditorium in Austin, Texas, together with the printed speech, “This Country Is Moving… And It Must Not Stop,” prepared for the Austin dinner, and “We Are… The Watchmen on the Walls of Freedom,” prepared for Kennedy’s noon address at the Dallas Trade Mart.

The November 22 itinerary called for President Kennedy to speak first before business leaders at the Dallas Trade Mart, then continue to Austin for the Texas Welcome Dinner. Neither address was delivered. At approximately 12:30 p.m., while traveling by motorcade through Dealey Plaza en route to the Trade Mart, Kennedy was fatally wounded. Both speeches therefore remained unpublished in spoken form, surviving only in these contemporaneously printed advance texts.

The official dinner program features the seals of the United States and the State of Texas, photographs of Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, and Governor John Connally, and the evening’s scheduled order of events. The Trade Mart speech emphasizes American leadership in the Cold War and contains the memorable line, “We are… the watchmen on the walls of freedom.” The Austin address focuses on economic growth, national progress, education, agriculture, and the nation’s future under the theme, “This country is moving… and it must not stop.”

The program has light handling wear. Both speech pamphlets exhibit expected age toning, edge wear, and scattered spotting, most noticeable to the front cover of the Dallas Trade Mart speech, along the upper edge.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) served as the 35th President of the United States from 1961 until his assassination on November 22, 1963. His administration was defined by the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the early Space Race, the Peace Corps, and support for civil rights legislation. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas remains one of the defining events of twentieth-century American history.

Authentication:
Includes a full letter of authenticity from JG Autographs, Inc.

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Reference sku: 11674 1416992-1