Rawlins Gilliland Oral History

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Videotaped oral history interview with Rawlins Gilliland. A National Endowment for the Arts master poet and longtime radio commentator, Gilliland was the son of political and civil rights activists in Dallas. He saw President and Mrs. Kennedy three times on November 22, 1963: at Dallas Love Field, on Lemmon Avenue and on Main Street less than ninety seconds before the assassination. Interview conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on December 5, 2022 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is one hour and fourteen minutes long.

Object Details

Object title:

Rawlins Gilliland Oral History

Date:

12/05/2022

Terms:

Interviews

Civil rights

Oral histories

Trip to Texas

Motorcade

Lemmon Avenue

Main Street

Childhood

Oak Cliff

Love Field

Dallas

Civil Rights and Social Activism (OHC)

Dallas and 1960s History and Culture (OHC)

Motorcade Spectators (OHC)

Childhood Recollections (OHC)

Love Field Airport (OHC)

Artists (OHC)

Medium:

Born digital (.m2ts file)

Dimensions:

Duration: 74 Minutes

Credit line:

Oral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

Object number:

2022.001.0086

Curatorial Note:

A Dallas arts legend, Rawlins Gilliland has led an extraordinary life, which he demonstrated during a series of 2014-2015 one-man autobiographical shows presented to sold-out audiences in Dallas and Oak Cliff. In addition to his work as a National Endowment for the Arts master poet, Gilliland was the longtime director of sales for Dallas retailer Neman Marcus as well as an on-air columnist for NPR, both nationally and on local affiliate station KERA. A 2015 spotlight about Gilliland in D Magazine may be accessed here: How Rawlins Gilliland Became Dallas' Forrest Gump - D Magazine. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator