The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991 Page: 174

                                
Southwestern Hzstorzcal Quarterly

write on such topics, even if occasionally we did wander off into the
wilds of Afghanistan with our editorializing. Later I met Jada herself
(at a literary reception for Larry McMurtry, believe it or not) and she
laughed and said, "Oh, God . . . I went to a little cow college for one
semester, but to Jack that's a college education."
Lee Harvey Oswald, using the nom-de-plume "O. H. Lee," wrote a
letter to us supporting Fair Play for Cuba, and Johnny Weeks (an asso-
ciate editor) and I waited late ("call after 5 P.M." the letter asked) and
talked to him trying to explain that we were calling merely to verify that
he had written the letter, not to jump on him for writing it. He told us
he liked "[our] paper" better than "the other one." I was at the Times
Herald city desk when Bob Jackson came running out of the darkroom
with a dripping wet print of the celebrated Pulitzer Prize photograph
of Ruby killing Oswald.
When the outside media people and researchers came pouring into
Dallas, few paid attention to the Tzmes Herald. Nearly all went to the
files and back issues of the Dallas Morning News for background mate-
rial, and nearly all of them proceeded to lambaste Dallas based on what
they read on the Dallas News editorial pages. The unusual role and
position of the Tzmes Herald at the time of the assassination was seldom
acknowledged then, and isn't always acknowledged yet.
But about the Sixth Floor exhibit. The space itself is well used, the
rough decor of a brick-walled warehouse (which it was) has been neat-
ened with a coat of light gray paint and a gray carpet put down, but the
setting has not been prettied up. The exhibits are accurate, insofar as
accuracy can be ascribed to clippings, broadcasts, and notes written or
published during the tense hours of the assassination. With its multi-
media presentations, the exhibits sweep you back through those years
and affect even those who were not yet born and were remote from the
events of that November 22. They are tastefully presented and yet they
present many views of the many controversial points.
The famous sixth-floor window is as it was on November 22, 1963,
with boxed new books forming the sniper's perch. This corner, and a
corner where the narrow stairway that was used by Oswald to escape
leads below, are untouched and surrounded by glass walls that allow
close inspection but do not give access to these sensitive areas.
To an historian looking for source documentation, the entire exhibit
is a satisfying presentation. No ax is ground, no political view is under-
scored or dampened. The cost and maintenance of the exhibit are
locally subscribed, but nothing in it defends Dallas or Texas. This ex-
hibit is for the world and for time. (An amply illustrated sixty-page
paperbound booklet, by Conover Hunt, the initial director, is on sale at
the Sixth Floor bookshop. It presents an unbiased story of the as-

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