"THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE FROM LEI-ADORNED DELEGATES"

N.E.A. ENDORSES CABINET LEVEL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On February 23, 1926, the National Education Association* unanimously endorsed the Curtis-Reed bill creating a cabinet level Department of Education.

The endorsement was greeted by "thunderous applause" from the NEA delegates meeting here in the Nation's Capital.

The delegates, according to The Evening Star, were wearing "orange garland leis of Hawaii around their necks."

Hearings will be held this week "by the congressional committees considering the bill."

JFK+50 NOTE

The Department of Education originated in 1980 with the support of President Jimmy Carter.  In March 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order aiming to close the Department of Education "to the maximum extent possible under the law."

*National Education Association (founded in 1857 as the National Teachers Association) today is the largest labor union in the USA.  NEA represents public school teachers & support personnel.

SOURCE

"N.E.A. Backs Bill For Education Department In Cabinet," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., February 23, 1926, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

NEA Headquarters

1201 16th Street

Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid (2020)

CC BY-SA 4.0

Washington, D.C.

GOOD EATING MR. PRESIDENT

JFK PARDONS THANKSGIVING TURKEY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-four years ago, November 19, 1963, President John F. Kennedy  was presented with a 55 pound turkey by the president of the National Turkey Federation*.

The turkey, named Tom, was afforded the traditional presidential pardon. 

President Kennedy said...

 "It would be...a terrible shame to interrupt a great line like Tom's.  We'll just keep him."

Thurston Clarke writes that later in the day Press Secretary Pierre Salinger dropped by the Oval Office to "say goodbye" before leaving on a trip with some cabinet members.

The President, "looked up from a stack of papers, removed his (reading) glasses, and said with an air of fatigue...

'I wish I weren't going to Texas.'"

*National Turkey Federation has been the advocate for the turkey farmer & processors for 75 years representing their interests to the U.S. Congress & federal agencies.

SOURCES

"JFK's Last Hundred Days:  The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President," by Thurston Clarke, The Penguin Press, New York, 2013.

"Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, John F. Kennedy, 1963," United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1964.

JFK Pardons Thanksgiving Turkey

Rose Garden, The White House

November 19, 1963

Photo by Abbie Rowe

NARA Image