Remember civil discussion?
Could one get such a meeting on an issue today? Probably — and wouldn’t it be nice to see more of them?
President John F. Kennedy invited top business leaders of the nation to the White House on June 4, 1963, to talk about civil rights. This photo captures the early moments of the late afternoon meeting in the East Room of the White House, with Vice President Lyndon Johnson addressing the group, and President Kennedy waiting to speak.
According to the Kennedy Library, these are people in in the photo:
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson (at podium, with back to camera) speaks to a group of business executives with establishments in southern cities, at a civil rights meeting conducted by President John F. Kennedy (seated at far right), Vice President Johnson, and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (not pictured). Those pictured include: Milton L. Elsberg, President of Drug Fair Inc.; Carling L. Dinkler, Jr., President of Dinkler Hotel Corporation; Lucien E. Oliver, Vice President of Sears, Roebuck & Company; Louis C. Lustenberger, President of W. T. Grant Company; William B. Thalhimer, Jr., President of Thalhimer Brothers, Inc.; G. Stockton Strawbridge, President of Strawbridge & Clothier; Bruce A. Gimbel, President of Gimbel Brothers, Inc.; and E. D. Martin, President of Martin Theatres of Georgia, Inc. East Room, White House, Washington, D.C.
Few of those companies exist today; those that do are in much changed form. Just fifty years ago.
The Kennedy Presidential Library in Massachusetts makes this photo available with hundreds of others at its on-line site.