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In reply to the discussion: Since November 22, 1963... [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)95. Equality was important to President Kennedy. Ask Abraham Bolden...
Secret Service didn't like African Americans in 1963. So, President Kennedy, personally, integrated the White House detail.
Former U.S. Secret Service Agent Abraham BOLDEN was the first African American Secret Service agent to serve in the White House, personally appointed and literally hand-picked by President John F. Kennedy to the White House detail. Agent Abraham Bolden reported overt racism by his fellow agents and outright hostility toward the "n------loving president," quoting fellow Secret Service agents on the JFK detail.
In addition to enduring all manner of personal indignities, he was concerned at the lack of professionalism in those assigned to protect the president and reported his concerns. He was told, "OK. Thanks" by his superiors. When the problems weren't addressed, Bolden requested transfer back to the Secret Service office in Chicago.

Abraham Bolden speaks at JFK Lancer.

The story of a man who told the truth:
After 45 Years, a Civil Rights Hero Waits for Justice
Thom Hartmann
June 12, 2009 11:52 AM
A great miscarriage of justice has kept most Americas from learning about a Civil Rights pioneer who worked with President John F. Kennedy. But there is finally a way for citizens to not only right that wrong, but bring closure to the most tragic chapter of American presidential history.
After an outstanding career in law enforcement, Abraham Bolden was appointed by JFK to be the first African American presidential Secret Service agent, where he served with distinction. He was part of the Secret Service effort that prevented JFK's assassination in Chicago, three weeks before Dallas. But Bolden was framed by the Mafia and arrested on the very day he went to Washington to tell the Warren Commission staff about the Chicago attempt against JFK.
Bolden was sentenced to six years in prison, despite glaring problems with his prosecution. His arrest resulted from accusations by two criminals Bolden had sent to prison. In Bolden's first trial, an apparently biased judge told the jury that Bolden was guilty, even before they began their deliberations. Though granted a new trial because of that, the same problematic judge was assigned to oversee Bolden's second trial, which resulted in his conviction. Later, the main witness against Bolden admitted committing perjury against him. A key member of the prosecution even took the fifth when asked about the perjury. Yet Bolden's appeals were denied, and he had to serve hard time in prison, and today is considered a convicted felon.
After the release of four million pages of JFK assassination files in the 1990s, it became clear that Bolden -- and the official secrecy surrounding the Chicago attempt against JFK -- were due to National Security concerns about Cuba, that were unknown to Bolden, the press, Congress, and the public not just in 1963, but for the next four decades.
SNIP...
Abraham Bolden paid a heavy price for trying to tell the truth about events involving the man he was sworn to protect -- JFK -- that became mired in National Security concerns. Bolden still lives in Chicago, and has never given up trying to clear his name.
Will Abraham Bolden live to finally see the justice so long denied to him?
CONTINUED...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thom-hartmann/after-45-years-a-civil-ri_b_213834.html
After the assassination, he went to Washington on his own dime and reported what he saw to the Warren Commission. For his trouble -- and despite an exemplary record as a Brinks detective, Illinois State Trooper, and Secret Service agent -- Bolden was framed by the government using a paid informant's admitted perjury and spent a long time in prison. The government also drugged him and put him into psychiatric hospitals.His real crime was telling the truth.
Americans know the Truth: the country hasn't been the same since Nov. 22, 1963. President Kennedy kept the nation out of Vietnam and started toward the moon. Imagine what the New Frontier could have become for us today? Certainly would not be a time where "money trumps peace."
Former U.S. Secret Service Agent Abraham BOLDEN was the first African American Secret Service agent to serve in the White House, personally appointed and literally hand-picked by President John F. Kennedy to the White House detail. Agent Abraham Bolden reported overt racism by his fellow agents and outright hostility toward the "n------loving president," quoting fellow Secret Service agents on the JFK detail.
In addition to enduring all manner of personal indignities, he was concerned at the lack of professionalism in those assigned to protect the president and reported his concerns. He was told, "OK. Thanks" by his superiors. When the problems weren't addressed, Bolden requested transfer back to the Secret Service office in Chicago.

Abraham Bolden speaks at JFK Lancer.
The story of a man who told the truth:
After 45 Years, a Civil Rights Hero Waits for Justice
Thom Hartmann
June 12, 2009 11:52 AM
A great miscarriage of justice has kept most Americas from learning about a Civil Rights pioneer who worked with President John F. Kennedy. But there is finally a way for citizens to not only right that wrong, but bring closure to the most tragic chapter of American presidential history.
After an outstanding career in law enforcement, Abraham Bolden was appointed by JFK to be the first African American presidential Secret Service agent, where he served with distinction. He was part of the Secret Service effort that prevented JFK's assassination in Chicago, three weeks before Dallas. But Bolden was framed by the Mafia and arrested on the very day he went to Washington to tell the Warren Commission staff about the Chicago attempt against JFK.
Bolden was sentenced to six years in prison, despite glaring problems with his prosecution. His arrest resulted from accusations by two criminals Bolden had sent to prison. In Bolden's first trial, an apparently biased judge told the jury that Bolden was guilty, even before they began their deliberations. Though granted a new trial because of that, the same problematic judge was assigned to oversee Bolden's second trial, which resulted in his conviction. Later, the main witness against Bolden admitted committing perjury against him. A key member of the prosecution even took the fifth when asked about the perjury. Yet Bolden's appeals were denied, and he had to serve hard time in prison, and today is considered a convicted felon.
After the release of four million pages of JFK assassination files in the 1990s, it became clear that Bolden -- and the official secrecy surrounding the Chicago attempt against JFK -- were due to National Security concerns about Cuba, that were unknown to Bolden, the press, Congress, and the public not just in 1963, but for the next four decades.
SNIP...
Abraham Bolden paid a heavy price for trying to tell the truth about events involving the man he was sworn to protect -- JFK -- that became mired in National Security concerns. Bolden still lives in Chicago, and has never given up trying to clear his name.
Will Abraham Bolden live to finally see the justice so long denied to him?
CONTINUED...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thom-hartmann/after-45-years-a-civil-ri_b_213834.html
After the assassination, he went to Washington on his own dime and reported what he saw to the Warren Commission. For his trouble -- and despite an exemplary record as a Brinks detective, Illinois State Trooper, and Secret Service agent -- Bolden was framed by the government using a paid informant's admitted perjury and spent a long time in prison. The government also drugged him and put him into psychiatric hospitals.His real crime was telling the truth.
Americans know the Truth: the country hasn't been the same since Nov. 22, 1963. President Kennedy kept the nation out of Vietnam and started toward the moon. Imagine what the New Frontier could have become for us today? Certainly would not be a time where "money trumps peace."
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'We have more will than wallet.' -- George Herbert Walker Bush, inaugural address
Octafish
Nov 2014
#116
I live in Sam Rayburn country and I am perplexed...to say the least...that it is very conservative
Horse with no Name
Nov 2014
#12
Well now, that's one way of interpreting McLean's magnum opus. But one could say that
KingCharlemagne
Nov 2014
#42
America was touched by the lowest demons in our nature, setting us on a different course.
Octafish
Nov 2014
#62
...this country has seen the corruption of our liberties by the MIC become the norm.
robertpaulsen
Nov 2014
#6
...and Cuba. Ike was president when Dulles hired the Mafia to kill Castro -- 1960.
Octafish
Nov 2014
#93
It is remarkable, the moments when it strikes. For me, HBO's ''Nixon by Nixon''...
Octafish
Nov 2014
#67
Since we are discussing people who need clues, perhaps you should spend a few moments
jtuck004
Nov 2014
#25
WHy don't you look up "hungry", which is what the children of the people who have been put and left
jtuck004
Nov 2014
#31
Hey, my friend, please do not confuse 'nostalgia' with 'reactionary.' I can assure you that
KingCharlemagne
Nov 2014
#46
Maybe just maybe we learn from the past that life does not have to suck like it does today. That
jwirr
Nov 2014
#80
WTF? Historians round the world are shaking their fists at you! :) - nt
KingCharlemagne
Nov 2014
#43
It's even more distressing to see 'progressives' forget what their party is supposed to be about.
sabrina 1
Nov 2014
#77
I was three. I still remember how upset I was. My mother had the old B & W tv on, I was watching
Dont call me Shirley
Nov 2014
#18
I don't want to piss in people's nostalgia Cheerios unduly, but JFK and RFK continued to
KingCharlemagne
Nov 2014
#45
JFK's assassination heralded the start of a string of murders of our best and brightest....
Hekate
Nov 2014
#50
Those weren't really great times for minorities and I really don't see it as
craigmatic
Nov 2014
#34
No I've read Dallek's book and seen all the documentaries but I'm not impressed by JFK.
craigmatic
Nov 2014
#63
Probably it would help understanding if you had actually been there. The Cold War was not one-sided
Hekate
Nov 2014
#72
Maybe you're right but it all comes back to ideology with JFK for me or rather his lack of one.
craigmatic
Nov 2014
#79
Once JFK allowed the Vietnamese military to kill Ngo and his brother we owned Vietnam.
craigmatic
Nov 2014
#107
Except JFK did not order assassination, despite what E Howard Hunt and CIA want us to believe.
Octafish
Nov 2014
#108
Jon Stewart said O'Reilly seemed ALMOST a Kennedy Democrat in comparison to RW extremists
pinboy3niner
Nov 2014
#56
In other words, a humorous exaggeration by a satirist for comic effect. Makes more sense that way.
Hekate
Nov 2014
#57
Sure was. Hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. describe what JFK did during the 1960 campaign...
Octafish
Nov 2014
#104
For a time capsule of the transition from the idealism of the late 1950s to
GreatGazoo
Nov 2014
#106