President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was an important American figure in the time he was alive and in his presidency. However, it all came to a very violent end. The President was going from state to state trying to get people to vote for him in the next election. He was at a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. At around 12:30 in the afternoon, gunshots came from behind the cars and struck the president in the back of the head (“JFK Assassination”). John B. Connally, who was the governor of Texas at the time, was also hit by one of the bullets in the chest and was left in critical condition ("November 22, 1963: Death of the President). The man who was suspected to be the assassin was Lee Harvey Oswald (“JFK Assassination”). He was quickly arrested a …show more content…
Kennedy’s assassination has a few present day connections. November 25 is the official JFK memorial day. Also, because of the assassination, surveillance and the protection of the president has increased greatly. This would protect many more presidents following him. At the motorcade he had pretty much no protection. He was in a topless convertible out in the open with no security right there in the car. There were policemen around there at the time, but they were on motorcycles patrolling elsewhere ("5 Ways JFK's Assassination Changed America Forever"). Also, after he had died, President Johnson soon passed the Civil Rights Act in honor of Kennedy, since he was so supportive of fair rights for everyone. Many people didn’t support it at the time, but he wanted to create it anyways. He succeeded in doing so after fighting to get it passed for Kennedy’s sake. The Vietnam War was also going on at the time, and Kennedy was doing his best to try and use as little violence as possible. However, once Johnson took over, it caused many deaths to occur on both sides ("5 Ways JFK's Assassination Changed America Forever"). JFK’s death was one of the things that made the war go on longer, instead of ending earlier like he had hoped it