Margaret H. Marshall
By Margaret H. Marshall, 11/22/2003
THE TELEPHONE rang in my Johannesburg home. "Have you heard?" The news struck as a thunderbolt rolling across the South African skies. Word of mouth. In 1963, South Africa had no television, and the apartheid government controlled the official state radio. Details of the assassination were hard to come by -- President John F. Kennedy was no friend of the apartheid government. But to the antiapartheid forces in South Africa he was a hero, a powerful symbol to us that America's commitment to liberty and justice for all was no longer an empty slogan. And for me, his death felt personal.
As a high school exchange student in Delaware in 1962-1963, I had watched President Kennedy's press conferences, had listened to his eloquent speeches, had even caught a glimpse of him, just once. His vision, his vigor, his idealism had sparked in me a life-long commitment to civil rights for all. John F. Kennedy's America had changed my life.
In 1963, Johannesburg was a universe away from Dallas. But the loss was close and palpable. No television, no images, few voices. None was needed.
Margaret H. Marshall is chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. She was studying in Wilmington, Del., from September 1962 to July 1963.
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