President John F. Kennedy’s “One day in Miami”

MIAMI – In November 1963, Miami was not yet the international city of today.

On Flagler Street you could hear Southern accents, Jim Crow laws were very much alive, and Cubans were not yet a political and economic force. That community was still reeling from the defeat at the Bay of Pigs. The city and the county were heavily Democratic.

November 18th, 1963, President John F. Kennedy arrived in Miami. He was in town for four-plus hours just four days before he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22nd.

Kennedy was no stranger to Miami, which was not far from the family compound in Palm Beach. He was a familiar figure at the Orange Bowl way before his presidency, according to Miami historian Paul George.

“I remember as a boy, being in the Orange Bowl for a North-South football game in the mid-fifties and there was John Kennedy at a hot dog stand by himself. He was putting mustard on a hot dog solo by himself,” said George.

Later, as President, Kennedy attended several Orange Bowl games and visited Homestead Air Force Base and Key West. After his 1960 election, there was a high-profile visit to Key Biscayne.

“He was going over there to meet Richard Nixon, shake hands with Nixon, and say, ‘Okay, the elections over, you know I barely won, but let’s move on now, let’s be unified about things’,” said George.

Kennedy’s most well-known visit was to the Orange Bowl on December 29th, 1962 where he met members of the 2506 Brigade who had just been released from Cuban prisons after the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. The Orange Bowl was packed and the leadership of the Brigade presented the President with a battle flag. Kennedy promised the just freed troops that it would be returned to them in “a free Havana.”

In November 1963, the nation was mesmerized by Camelot. A handsome president, an elegant wife, a beautiful family, glamour, a tinge of Hollywood. With an election a year away Kennedy made a trip to South Florida. November 18th would be a major swing through the state he lost in 1960 but Dade County was a Florida county he won.

Upon his arrival there was a huge crowd at Miami International Airport, some say over four thousand people. The scene was pure JFK. Flashing the Kennedy smile, working the crowd, shaking hands, a rock-start welcome.

But there was a worry as local police were aware of a man who had made threats. An undercover Miami police officer had audio taped the boasts of Joseph Milteer, described by police in news reports as a racist union organizer from Georgia. The detective got Milteer to spill his theory which was to “shoot the president with a high-powered rifle from a tall building.”

Looking back, the Milteer’s recorded rant was an eery forecast of what was just four days ahead. News accounts at the time said the police shortened Kennedy’s motorcade from the airport to the Bal Harbour Americana Hotel where he delivered a major foreign policy speech.

At the hotel, Kennedy was greeted by a who’s who of 1960s Miami Politics including long-time Miami civic leader and school board member Holmes Braddock.

“It was a big, big crowd and all the politicians, that I had tickets, I guess got there, and I can’t even remember how I got our tickets,” recalled Braddock. “I can’t even remember that somebody gave them to me or what, I don’t remember, but it was all, all the named people in Dade County were there, it’s difficult to remember exactly what the heck he said, too long ago, but he looked good doing it.”

Braddock said he remembers the news from Dallas four days later and how it shook the nation. He said it was hard to believe that the young and vibrant president whom he had just seen was dead.