Photo: John F. Kennedy campaigning in the hills of West Virginia, 1960

[RandySF]

https://historydaily.org/rare-photographs-you-will-never-see-in-history-books/18

[DonaldsRump]

1. This just makes we want to cry

What a wonderful man and President he was...and how badly his own country let him and his family down.

Love 'ya JFK!

[Sneederbunk]

2. JFK's victory over Humphrey in WVA was a turning point.

[nevergiveup]

3. Tears

[StarryNite]

4. Makes me cry on many levels.

[gristy]

5. What an interesting stance. Left hand in pocket. Right hand on stomach, over his tie.

I'm trying to discern some meaning from this, but cannot.
But that he is at the bottom of the steps is just right.

Beautiful photo. Just beautiful. Yes, our country let him down, terribly.

[Botany]

8. I think he is trying to show respect and to learn something too.

That is an amazing imagine. Kennedy down lower and looking up, the hoe, the no grass (dog on a chain or kids),
the livestock and the hill behind them, the broken steps and porch, and the man and his kids. Lots to download
in that picture and notice it is just JFK and no swarm of security around him.

[gristy]

6. dupe

[Tactical Progressive]

7. I remember RFK doing that

Didn’t know his older brother had done it first.
Thank god for LBJ.

Right wingers have been murdering this country forever.

[Mr.Bill]

9. I remember I story I read a long time ago about that campaign.

Kennedy was a t a coal mine meeting the miners coming out of the mine at the end of their shift. The conversation with one miner went like this:

Miner: Mr. Kennedy, I hear you've never worked a day in your life.

JFK: Well, I guess you could say that's true.

Miner: Don't worry about it, Mr. Kennedy, you haven't missed a damn thing.

[Sherman A1]

10. I remember seeing JFK in a motorcade

when he was running for President. A cousin took both myself and my sister up to the road he would be traveling on from the airport to his speaking location. I was really to young to understand much of it at the time, but it was still cool and I still remember it.

[TexasBushwhacker]

19. I saw him in a motorcade in Houston

the day before he was killed.

[Illumination]

11. Could you imagine Trump doing this?...

[Susan Calvin]

12. How dare you not put a Kleenex alert on that!

Just kidding of course, while crying all over my lunch.

[judesedit]

13. Awesome picture. It brings tears to my eyes.

[Tarc]

14. It's a shame that W. Va. will probably be lost to us for a generation.

It will take time to undue the damage done by the alt-right stirring white genocide conspiracy theories down there.

[Blue_true]

20. I am not sure of that.

Parts of West Virginia are becoming distant suburbs of Northern Virginia, people working and commuting home to WVa. If the state keeps a portion of educated young people that now leave mostly, we have a chance to turn it blue in a decade, similar to what happened in Virginia and is happening in North Carolina.

[iluvtennis]

15. Love this picture - looks like JFK was a man with compassion and humility. nt

[mountain grammy]

16. Amazing!

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

17. tried to find a pic. he also came to my small hometown. aurora, il.

there was a big parade. my mom got to shake his hand as he went by.
you would have had to know my mom to know how out of character that was. she repeated over and over the day he died- i shook his hand.

eta, found it.
this is the street i lived on. marmion was 2 blocks away.

i guess she left out that she was standing on the curb in front of the house.
https://www.facebook.com/cityofaurorail/photos/throwbackthursday-october-25-1960-a-young-senator-john-f-kennedy-visits-aurora-i/560859440649559/

[Paladin]

18. Such a profound loss.

JFK, his family and his administration set a standard for the presidency that has never been equaled in all the years since. Obama came close.

[Blue_true]

22. Actually JFK really didn't accomplish much.

His big initiatives were stalled in Congress. LBJ got a ton done after taking over. I believe Kennedy got us involved in Vietnam (he was a pretty strong cold warrior) and LBJ expanded our involvement (to his and the nation’s detriment).

[SMC22307]

25. You couldn't hit pause for just one thread?

Unreal.

[Blue_true]

30. Why? I stated reasonably well known history.

The image of JFK, unfortunately is greater than his accomplishments. Everything that he envisioned was actually done by LBJ, plus some other things that JFK didn’t have on his plate.

[Paladin]

26. And how old were you when the Cuban Missile Crisis went down?

Were you even born? I was in middle school at the time, and let me tell you something: Nobody with a memory of that event will ever be stupid enough to claim that "JFK really didn't accomplish much."

[Blue_true]

31. A singular event in the whole expanse of a presidency. LBJ accomplished much

more meaningful stuff that impacted people’s lives.

I don’t remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, I was born, but hadn’t gone to any school at that time, so my memory would at best be that of an older toddler, which isn’t much for a child that lived a standard life (no abuse or any other stuff that sticks in the memory). I studied the CMC as part of history in school, that is all that I gather as JFK’s accomplishment, LBJ did the really heavy lifting that uplifted society and got people on the Moon. I am really sensitive to people, particularly here that downgrade LBJ, he was simply one of the giants of the Presidency, far exceeding JFK, in my estimate. As a Black person, LBJ had far more positive impact upon my early life. LBJ’s one massive mistake was escalating JFK’s involvement in Vietnam.

[roamer65]

29. JFK stopped nuclear war.

Enuff said.

[Blue_true]

32. I am not sure that was the case.

The Soviet leader seemed to have been carrying out an act of dick-waving and backed down when confronted. Confronting the Soviet leader was not stopping nuclear war, because at the worse, the Soviets would have gotten nuclear missiles stationed a few miles from Florida, that doesn’t say that they would have attempted to use them, but you made that projection, which isn’t supported by a thorough examination of the history of that period.

[electric_blue68]

21. Oh, soooo poignant...

I'm 67 so all of who are your late '70's especially probably have way more vivid memories of him. You would have understood the loss. I was 10 in '63. I knew that generally it was a bad thing to shoot a President. Only later did I begin to understand the larger context.

I'd like to hear some of your memories. 🙂

He looks patient, and trying to take in their situation. And as one of you said - there alone with who's ever with him further away out of camera range. A real more or less
'one on one' meeting.

I do however remember the photos of RFK's meeting with white Appalachians, black people in the Mississippi Delta, Caesar Chavez, Native Americans, etc.

-double sighs-

[Blue Owl]

23. JFK&R

[Sogo]

24. I've always thought that we, as a country, were robbed of our future

when he was assassinated.

I don't know by whom, but I'm sure it wasn't by that lone individual, Oswald.

[Music Man]

27. Love this photo.

I love JFK looking up at them. You wonder what the kids are thinking.

This resolves me to think harder about how Democrats can cut through the noise and remind white, rural voters that we are the party that speaks to the hardships they're really experiencing. Republicans have managed to use cultural issues like abortion and guns to entrench themselves in these communities and convince them that their enemy is the black guy moving into the neighborhood is the reason they're poor and not the rich, white, asshole sitting in the CEO office.

80 years ago, these voters would undoubtedly be voting for FDR. I hold out hope that we can do it again.

Side note: That website is great. Love the rest of the historical photos.

[SMC22307]

28. Poignant photo.

Can anyone imagine Drumpf standing in West Virginia muck to talk with this family?