JFK assassination - 40 years later

As the 40th anniversary of the JFK assassination in Dallas approached, we had a brainstorming meeting at The Dallas Morning News to come up with story ideas. Unfortunately, history dictated this was a story we had to retell over and over again. President Kennedy had been killed a couple of blocks from the paper while passing through Dealey Plaza, named after our long-time publisher George Dealey, who passed away in 1946.

Among many other civic causes, Dealey had pushed for the redevelopment of a blighted area near downtown, which was then named Dealey Plaza in his honor. This site became known worldwide when, on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated while his motorcade drove through the plaza.

We had recently gotten a look at the original medium format negatives shot by DMN photographer Tom Dillard on that fateful day, which were now in the possession of the Sixth Floor Museum. I proposed we take a look at those exact scenes and show how they now looked in 2003. With DMN staff photographer Allison Smith and her Hasselblad signed on, we set out to recreate the photos as closely as possible. Also, DMN staffer Barbara Davidson shot an essay on the allure of Dealey Plaza, one of the top stops for tourists in the D/FW area. Here are the two doubletrucks we produced from the project.