Words of wisdom shared with Junior League delegates attending the 1958 AJLA Annual Conference workshop conducted by then-Senator John F. Kennedy.
During the workshop, entitled Citizen Relationships to Legislation, Kennedy stressed the importance of public opinion on legislation and asked that groups such as The Junior League keep adequately informed on all types of pending legislation in the public interest. The group met in the old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol, which was also (for a time during the Civil War) where the Senate met and some of the most famous debates in history were held. It’s the room in which the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
This was one of many times JFK, as both Senator and later as President, invited The Junior League to crucial meetings in the public interest, including the President’s Committee for the Employment of the Handicapped, the formation of a program to form the National Service Corps, the President’s Council on Fitness of Youth and a special meeting of influential women to discuss civil rights.