The long weekend of panels and presentations at the first annual JFK Lancer Conference came to an end on Saturday night with the presentation of a series of awards to a variety of researchers who have contributed to our understanding of the JFK assassinaton over the years.
Awards presentations seem to be in vogue now with research-oriented organizations. I don't know what that means, other than many years have passed since the assassination, and these organizations are acknowledging the groundbreaking work of earlier generations.
In any case, I'd like to note that the Coalition on Political Assassinations innaugurated the Sylvia Meagher Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995, which it first presented to Penn Jones, Jr., Harold Weisberg, and Josiah Thompson. In 1996 the same award went to Robert Groden, Bud Fensterwald, Jim Lesar, and Peter Dale Scott.
Also, in an article published in the January, 1990 issue of The Third Decade ("The JFK Assassination Files: Did You Know?"), G. J. Rowell suggested the idea of an assassination researchers Hall of Fame. "The first five inductees into the Hall of Fame," he wrote, "are: Harold Weisberg, Mark Lane, Sylvia Meagher, Penn Jones, Jr., and Thomas Buchanen."
Which brings us to the first JFK Lancer awards, presented on November 23, 1996. There were actually several sets of awards, including the "New Frontier" Award, which bore this legend:
In appreciation for your contribution of new evidence and futhering the study of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
This New Frontier award was presented to Anna Marie Kuhns-Walko, David Lifton, Gordon Winslow, George Michael Evica, Jack White, and John Newman.
These were followed by the main event, the presentation of the first JFK-Lancer "Pioneer" awards. Lancer says in the future this will be be called the Mary Ferrell Pioneer Award:
In appreciation for your lifetime of searching for the truth in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
This award was presented to Elaine and Penn Jones, Lillian and Harold Weisberg, and Mary and Buck Ferrell.
The presentations were emceed by Robert Chapman. He said that Penn Jones now suffers from Alzheimer's disease and was unable to attend the ceremony. Mr. Jones, of course, published The Midlothian Mirror for many years, in which he ran articles and editorials exposing the Warren Commission for what it was. He later published four books --- the four volumes of Forgive My Grief --- and a newsletter, The Continuing Inquiry. "Penn Jones did some great work in this field," Chapman said, "and we owe him and his wife a great debt."
The next Pioneer award went to Lillian and Harold Weisberg. Like Penn Jones, Mr. Weisberg entered the case at the beginning, publishing the first serious analysis of the Warren Report, Whitewash. In recent years he wrote a rebuttal to Gerald Posner called Case Open, and followed that up with Never Again! Mr. Weisberg was also not in attendance, but did appear via videotape. "We do appreciate this very much," he said, crediting his wife Lillian for the success of the work.
The final recipient, and the person for whom the award will henceforth be named, was Mary Ferrell. Robert Chapman described meeting her some twenty years earlier. He said he had heard of "this woman who lived in Dallas who had this incredible collection of material. This was in the early 70s --- you should see it now!" There was so much stuff, he said, that her husband built a second house behind their main house, just to store it all.
"I have never known a brighter, more dedicated, more loving, more caring individual," Chapman said, in introducing her. Then, to a rousing applause, Mrs. Ferrell got up to speak.
"I don't have very much to say tonight," she began. "We've been trying for thirty-three years to get all the documents out of Washington, telling us what happened to our president ... I want to live long enough to see two things: all the documents opened, and David Lifton's new book." This comment got a big laugh; Mr. Lifton's much-anticipated biography on Lee Harvey Oswald has been delayed for several years.
Then, she invoked the names of many first-generation researchers who are now dead, and also those of her co-recipients that night. "Dear Penn Jones, Jr., who would have fought to his death for a cause in which he believed --- and he has never believed more in any cause than in the one we're assembled here this weekend to work on --- Penn is so sick right now that he doesn't realize our struggle is still going on.
"Harold Weisberg's mind is as sharp as it was on November 22, 1963. But Harold's body, like mine, is simply wearing out.
"In the early days," she continued, "we were confronted by the FBI, the Justice Department, the CIA, Chief Justice Earl Warren and his Commission of party liners --- all dedicated to the proposition they called 'the lone assassin theory.' When science and common sense threatened to demolish that theory, a young Warren Commission staff attorney, Arlen Specter, rescued the proposition for them, with what --- I think Dr. Cyril Wecht was the first to call it the 'magic bullet.' For a while, nearly everyone believed Mr. Specter's innovative piece of scientific logic. And to dissent from this theory earned us titles of conspiracy buffs, nut cases, radicals, and some epithets that I wouldn't even say aloud in a public forum.
"In those early days, there was no Senate Intelligence Committee, no HSCA, AARC, ASK, COPA, CTKA, and certainly no Assassination Records Review Board. We didn't have Echoes of Conspiracy, The Fourth Decade, or even The Third Decade ... Back Channels, Probe, Open Secrets, Chronicles of Conspiracy, or JFK/Deep Politics. We didn't have organized colleagues in Great Britain, like Dallas '63 or Dealey Plaza UK that joined us in our efforts.
"But we cannot afford to look back in envy, and wish we had had the wealth of material available to young researchers today. We can't afford to envy the young researchers --- after all, young researchers are primarily responsible for all the progress that's been made in the past twenty-five years. If the first generation of researchers and critics pointed the way, the second and third generations have certainly picked up the gauntlet. We must convert any envy, or any emotion, into action --- action calculated to focus the government's attention on this agony we feel because we cannot get the material that we need. We want to keep going until we find the truth --- truth resulting from full disclosure of the facts and circumstances surrounding the death of President John F. Kennedy. Let us not equivocate --- let us settle for nothing less.
"I'm sure that many of you have been confronted by those who say that ours in a lost cause. Occasionally I remind people that a very wise man once said that a lost cause is the only one worth fighting for...
"For me, it's almost over. Penn Jones, Harold Weisberg and I probably won't make it to the finish line with you," Mary Ferrell said, her voice choking up slightly. "But we'll be there in spirit --- along with Sylvia, Arch, and Bud, Michael, Dick Sprague ... Mae Brussell, and Larry Ray Harris. Your voices, and the voices of thousands of our fellow critics, are resonating throughout this land --- demanding justice for a great and cherished leader. A leader who was innaugurated thirty-fifth president of these United States, on January 20th of 1961."
She then read from JFK's innaugural address, and the power and idealism of those words seemed to energize the room. "'We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to ensure the survival and success of liberty...'
"We owe it to this man to find out how and why he died, in Dallas, thirty-three years ago yesterday."
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