Experts in the News

Topic
TIME

Inside the Unsung Life of the Man Who Was John F. Kennedy’s Most Personal Assistant

On a grim November day 55 years ago, George E. Thomas dressed President John F. Kennedy for the last time. The president’s loyal valet, laboring through his ineffable grief, methodically attended to the man lying before him in a coffin, careful to make one final adjustment to Kennedy’s handkerchief so it would look just the way the president always insisted, with the monogram concealed.
Barbara Perry
UVA Today

A British playwright, a trip to Berryville and the untold story of JFK's valet

They gathered in a one-room schoolhouse in Berryville, Virginia – four women and one man, all African-American, coming from their nearby retirement home. They were there to tell Barbara Perry and Alfred Reaves IV, researchers at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, about one of their neighbors, an African-American man who journeyed from Berryville to the highest reaches of President John F. Kennedy’s White House and yet still came home nearly every weekend to see his family, friends and neighbors.
Barbara Perry
MSNBC

California Wildfires Update

Rev. Al Sharpton is joined by Rep. John Garamendi, David Brock, Chris Lu, and Liz Copeland to discuss the tragic fires that have ravaged Northern California and what the next steps are, as well as the response the Trump administration has given.
Chris Lu
C-SPAN

Radio: LBJ Tapes 55th Anniversary JFK Assassination

From November 22, 1963: Radio communications between the White House and Air Force One and other administration planes. You’ll also hear some of Lyndon Johnson’s earliest calls as the new president, including the setting up of what would become known as the Warren Commission. And we talk with Kennedy historian, professor and author Barbara Perry, Presidential Studies Director at the University of Virginia's Miller Center.
Barbara Perry