Dallas

Dealey Plaza visitors anticipate release of JFK assassination documents

President Trump to declassify 80,000 pages of JFK assassination records, sparking renewed discussion

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Visitors at Dealey Plaza reflect on the legacy of JFK and what the release of 80,000 documents may reveal. NBC 5’s David Goins has the story.

President Donald Trump said records related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas would be released on Tuesday.

Trump told reporters the 80,000 documents would be declassified and released without redactions, echoing a promise he made during his campaign last year.

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On Tuesday, visitors to Dealey Plaza said they anticipated the release of documents from an event that shaped U.S. and Dallas history more than 61 years ago.

Glenn Singer, visiting from Arizona, said it was his first time seeing the site where Kennedy was killed.

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"It's like straight out of a movie," Singer said. "I think it's very humbling to be here."

"This is a place where something actually happened in the past we need to talk about more."

Trump signed an executive order in late January, days after taking office, to declassify documents related to JFK and the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Chester Bolden said he remembers the grief that spread through his elementary school in Houston when the news of Kennedy's death broke.

"I was 10 years old," Bolden said Tuesday at Dealey Plaza. "When I got home, it wasn’t like home because my parents were crying.”

Bolden, now in his early 70s, said releasing all documents related to the assassination could provide more clarity to a moment he lived through and has shared with his children and grandchildren.

"By those records being released, maybe it can shed more light on what truly happened," Bolden said.

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