Our second May birthday president featured in the Lessons is a Gemini. Although Kennedy entered Congress while Elbert Benjamine was alive, and like Nixon was a well-known name during the Truman administration, his presidency occurred after the Brotherhood of Light lessons were complete. (Note that the date of death below is incorrect, as he died in 1963, not 1962.) Individuals whose charts appear in the Brotherhood’s lessons in the photograph below are Supreme Court Justice and past California governor Earl Warren, administering the oath of office, to the left of the podium, with JFK facing him from the right of it. Behind JFK in the front row is past Vice President Nixon. Behind them is incoming VP Johnson. Elsewhere in the group are outgoing president Eisenhower and his predecessor Truman, and First Ladies Edith Wilson, Bess Truman, Mamie Eisenhower, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Lady Bird Johnson. This captures an era of orderly peaceful transition of the presidency from one party to another.
The National Archives website includes the full text of Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address along with explanatory context.
