“If there is one unchanging theme that runs throughout these separate stories, it is that everything changes but change itself. We live in an age of movement and change, both evolutionary and revolutionary, both good and evil–and in such an age a university has a special obligation to hold fast to the best of the past and move fast to the best of the future.”
That statement, delivered by President John F. Kennedy on May 18, 1963, in Nashville at the 90th Anniversary Convocation of Vanderbilt University and the 30th anniversary of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), serve as the cold opening to this black-and-white film titled, “A Man Passed Our Way.” The film was made in 1964 on the one-year anniversary of his visit, while the nation was still mourning the assassination of the 35th president on November 22, 1963.
Kennedy was the 14th President of the United States ever to visit Nashville, and at mark 01:06, Air Force 1 is shown landing that Saturday morning at Berry Field to enthusiastic crowds. We see JFK shaking hands with supporters before joining an open, 15-car motorcade to downtown Nashville, passing an estimated 300,000 admirers who lined the route to Vanderbilt University, where a crowd of 33,000 waited for him at Dudley Field.
“There was no indication that in just six months, while riding in a similar motorcade in Dallas, Texas, a sniper’s bullet would cut short a bright career,” the narrator acknowledged at mark 02:25.
The film flashes back to President Kennedy, as he is shown symbolically starting excavation at mark 03:05 of the TVA’s Cordell Hull Dam (named for the Nobel Prize-winning secretary of state under President Franklin D. Roosevelt) and the J. Percy Priest Dam.
The film carries a somber tone. At mark 03:45 the narrator explains, “It has been one year since the president’s visit to Nashville. Six months later he became the fourth President of the United States to be assassinated. It has now been six months since his tragic death in Dallas, but his address in this city still lives. He spoke of liberty and warned that liberty without learning ends in peril. And that learning without liberty is in vain. He spoke of human rights and human enlightenment. Of citizens’ rights and citizens’ responsibilities.”
JFK is shown addressing the crowd beginning at mark 04:19, touching on these topics and returning to his address at Vanderbilt. “The essence of Vanderbilt is still learning, the essence of its outlook is still liberty, and liberty and learning will be and must be the touchstones of Vanderbilt University and of any free university in this country or the world. I say two touchstones, yet they are almost inseparable, inseparable if not indistinguishable, for liberty without learning is always in peril, and learning without liberty is always in vain,” the president tells the crowd.
The film continues as Kennedy, at mark 06:23, addresses the unrest of the Civil Rights Movement: “This Nation is now engaged in a continuing debate about the rights of a portion of its citizens. That will go on, and those rights will expand until the standard first forged by the Nation’s founders has been reached, and all Americans enjoy equal opportunity and liberty under law.
But this Nation was not founded solely on the principle of citizens’ rights. Equally important, though too often not discussed, is the citizen’s responsibility. For our privileges can be no greater than our obligations. The protection of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities. Each can be neglected only at the peril of the other. I speak to you today, therefore, not of your rights as Americans, but of your responsibilities. They are many in number and different in nature. They do not rest with equal weight upon the shoulders of all. Equality of opportunity does not mean equality of responsibility. All Americans must be responsible citizens, but some must be more responsible than others, by virtue of their public or their private position, their role in the family or community, their prospects for the future, or their legacy from the past.”
Some of those spectators who had the opportunity to meet the president speak of their experience beginning at mark 09:00, including a Veterans Administration hospital nurse and patients, and Vanderbilt University Chancellor Alexander Heard, who shares his views beginning at mark 12:45.
We return to the president’s address at mark 17:10 and his call to action from the “educated citizen” to reject the temptation of prejudice and violence. Kennedy said, “The educated citizen has an obligation to uphold the law. This is the obligation of every citizen in a free and peaceful society–but the educated citizen has a special responsibility by the virtue of his greater understanding. For whether he has ever studied history or current events, ethics or civics, the rules of a profession or the tools of a trade, he knows that only a respect for the law makes it possible for free men to dwell together in peace and progress. … Any educated citizen who seeks to subvert the law, to suppress freedom, or to subject other human beings to acts that are less than human, degrades his heritage, ignores his learning, and betrays his obligation.Certain other societies may respect the rule of force–we respect the rule of law.”
Although JFK’s visit to Nashville was only a few hours long, the narrator assures the viewer that his message, particularly in the wake of his assassination, would have a much longer effect.
