After November 22, 1963, Dallas became known as the “City of Hate” as it was the site where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. This has put cities and their politics under the microscope in ways that have not been scrutinized before.
“After the assassination, Dallas faced a tremendous amount of international criticism that it did not experience in Memphis after Martin Luther's death in 1968 or in Los Angeles after Bobby's death in 1968. ” said Floor Museum curator Stephen Fagin. “Dallas was a very special case because the political atmosphere in the city in the months and years leading up to President Kennedy's visit unfairly characterized this community as extremist and toxic. is.”
The assassination gained further attention when the gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, was shot and killed by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby as police transferred Oswald from the city jail to the county jail.
Ruby's biographer Danny Fingeroth said, “Ruby was very concerned about the right-wing, which he thought was inherently anti-Semitic.” “You know, that was a big concern of his, and some of the really bizarre things he did in the 48 hours between the two murders, it was like he was a detective tasked by someone to get to the bottom of it. He even drove around Dallas wondering who killed Kennedy. ”
The label “City of Hate” lingered long after Oswald's death. In fact, we tracked Dallas residents across the United States.
“The publisher of the Dallas Times Herald was in New York shortly after the assassination and took a taxi,” Fagin said. “The driver asked him where he was from, and his name was Jim Chambers. When Chambers answered, 'Dallas,' the taxi driver stopped the cab and took him nowhere. I ordered him to drive out into the snow because he had no intention of carrying freight from Dallas, Texas. ”
Michael Granberry, a longtime reporter for the Dallas Morning News, recalled a similar story that occurred 25 years after the assassination.
“I remember meeting an older man in New York in 1988. We met at a wedding and we had a really nice conversation, and he said, 'I forgot to ask you, but… Where are you from?’ And I said, ‘Dallas, Texas.’ And all of a sudden he looked like I punched him in the gut,” Granberry said. “He sat back in his chair and his face was kind of wide open, and I said, 'Why would you react like that?' And he said, 'Oh, it's Kennedy's fault. I will never forgive you for killing Kennedy.” And I felt like I had punched him in the gut. ”
To learn how and why Dallas began to shed its “City of Hate” label, listen to this week's episode of “Texas Wants to Know” on the Audacy app or wherever you get your podcasts. please listen.
