Oct. 19, 1963 | JFK Remarks in Boston

Oct. 19, 1963 - After attending the first half of the Harvard-Columbia game at Harvard Stadium this afternoon, President Kennedy went to Hollywood Cemetery in suburban Brookline to visit the grave of his infant son, Patrick Bouvier, who died last August a few days after a premature birth. Tonight, joining his brother, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, at a $100-a-plate fundraising dinner at the Commonwealth Armory, the President predicted the 88th Congress will do more for civil rights than any Congress since Reconstruction and “will go down as one of the great Congresses of modern times.” The President came closest to hitting at Senator Barry Goldwater when he said, “As for the ‘conservatives,’ let them help conserve our clean water and our clean air and parks and forests and seashores and natural resources.” Most of those who attended the gala event, where more than $750,000 was raised for the Democratic National Committee, considered the President’s brief address as all but launching his 1964 campaign for re-election. “Walking around this room,” Mr. Kennedy said, looking around the mammoth armory where Democrats from all over the region had gathered,” I see veterans of recent campaigns, and I know that soon I will be a veteran, and it now looks as though my last campaign is coming up.”

Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s