UNC Pembroke will host a panel discussion, “The Assassination of John F. Kennedy, 60 Years Later,” at 4 p.m. in the main reading room at the Livermore Library on October 24.

The event is free and open to the public. Panelists will include UNCP faculty members, Drs. Richard Vela, Misti Harper and Ryan Anderson. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade in downtown Dallas.

The Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated Kennedy and that he acted alone. Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby two days later. What followed was a flood of alternate theories embodied in researched arguments, films and novels. The panel will explore the impact and aftermath of these events.   

Vela was a sophomore at the University of Dallas and had planned to see the president as he left the Trade Mart. Dr. Vela presented a paper on the JFK assassination at a conference this month in New Orleans.

Vela, a longtime professor in the Department of English, Theatre, and World Languages, joined the UNCP faculty in 1971. He has taught courses in Shakespeare, Latino Literature, British Literature and film. 

Anderson is a professor in the Department of History. His scholarly and teaching endeavors focus on building a nuanced understanding of how regular people matter as historical actors. His first book, Frank Merriwell and the Fiction of All-American Boyhood explored how Progressive Era Americans remade boyhood for the 20th century.

Dr. Harper is an assistant professor of African-American history. Her scholarship and teaching center on the agency of black Americans in their own economic, political and social liberation. She is the author of Crossing the Deep River: An Introduction to African American History and Ladies of Little Rock: Black Femininity and Respectability Politics in the Fight to Desegregate Central High School.