The Grassy Knoll

When we arrived in Dallas to teach for the weekend, we headed to Dealey Plaza. Walking through the plaza gave us an opportunity to see for ourselves the locations that we had heard about for most of our lives. One of those was the Grassy Knoll.

There is nothing particularly imposing about it. It is simply a small, gently rising area of grass and trees beside Elm Street. Yet since November 22, 1963, the words “grassy knoll” have become part of the American vocabulary.

President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade had just passed the Texas School Book Depository and was traveling along Elm Street when shots were fired. Kennedy was mortally wounded and Governor John Connally, riding in the same limousine, was seriously injured. Kennedy was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository and acted alone. But some witnesses in Dealey Plaza believed they had heard gunfire coming from the direction of the grassy knoll. Those accounts helped make this small piece of landscape central to decades of questions, investigations and competing theories surrounding the assassination.

In 1979, the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that Kennedy was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy, based in part on acoustic evidence suggesting an additional gunshot. That acoustic evidence was subsequently challenged by scientific analyses, and no second gunman was ever established. The disagreement helped ensure that public debate about what happened in Dealey Plaza would continue long after the assassination itself.

Standing there was different from seeing the familiar photographs and films. Dealey Plaza is relatively compact. The Book Depository, Elm Street, the grassy knoll and the route of the presidential limousine are all within sight of one another. Walking the landscape gives a sense of distance and perspective that photographs cannot quite provide.

It is remarkable that such an ordinary patch of ground could acquire such significance. Before November 22, 1963, it was simply part of Dealey Plaza. Afterward, the Grassy Knoll became a name recognized around the world.