History of assassinations

By Bob Elliott

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After the last few weeks of retrospectives, I'm further convinced that the assassination of President John F. Kennedy 50 years ago was collectively traumatic, but not a significant departure from our history.

Long before that horrible late November day in 1963, there were myriad instances of civil unrest and social insanity.

As a child of the Depression, I grew up during the 1940s and 1950s. I witnessed a time when everyone in our nation came together with a singular goal of doing whatever it took to win World War II. We emerged with the thrill of victory and the reputation of a world power with great promise for the future. We had it all.

After mild unease about a “limited war” in Korea, the decade of 1960s ushered in a mega controversial war in Vietnam and an extended period of nationwide anti-war and civil rights rioting. Then came the four assassinations during a five-year period in the 1960s. In 1963, it was civil rights activist Medgar Evers in Memphis and President Kennedy in Dallas. Then in 1968, it was Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles.

Overcome with disbelief and grief, we failed to remember that a presidential assassination was not unique for our country. Over our first 187 years, more than one out of every 10 of our presidents was assassinated. Add to that, unsuccessful attempts on at least four other presidents.

Assassinations were:

Abraham Lincoln (16th president), 1865 in Washington, D.C.

James Garfield (20th), 1881 in Washington, D.C.

William McKinley (25th), 1901 in Buffalo, NY

John F. Kennedy (35th), 1963 in Dallas, TX

Unsuccessful attempts included:

Andrew Jackson (7th), 1835 in Washington, D.C.

Herbert Hoover (31st), 1928 in Argentina

Franklin Roosevelt (32nd, then president-elect) 1933 in Miami

Harry Truman (33rd), 1950 in Washington, D.C.

In addition to two previous attempts on Lincoln in 1861 and 1864.

Remember, it was a Revolutionary War that gave birth to our nation. After that, we won the next three wars against foreign countries - Britain again (1812-1815), Mexico (1846-48)) and Spain (1898). In between were the deadliest of all, our Civil War (1861-65) and Indian Wars, (continuing to about 1890).

Then there's our history of violent rioting over labor, racial and anti-war issues. Everything from Chicago's bloody Haymarket Riot in 1886 to a seemingly endless series riots up to and beyond World Wars I and II. Examples of earlier race and labor riots were East St. Louis (1917), Chicago (1919), and Tulsa (1921), resulting in a total of nearly 200 fatalities.

Clearly, rioting and even assassinations were taking place in our country long before 1963.

Coming out of World War II, most of us still had confidence in our government. The difference was we believed people we elected really tried to do what was in our nation's best interests. We knew about wars, riots and assassinations, but we were naive about the potential for our representative form of government deteriorating so dramatically.

What's changed is, for many of us, our eyes are now wide open. We realize:

l Our free and open elections are being compromised by big money.

l Most of those we elect to be citizen representatives quickly become self-absorbed career politicians.

l Politics at most levels are becoming increasingly radicalized. As a result, our government has become nearly dysfunctional.

The question now is how to reform government, replace gridlock, and regain public trust.

Bob Elliott is a longtime resident of Iowa City and a former City Council member. Comments: elliottb53@aol.com. Note: Sources for this article included U.S. Center for Civic Education, Encyclopedia of Chicago, American Anthropological Association, and America's Best History-U.S. Timeline.