On the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, we look back at how the editorial pages of the Times Union and its former sister paper, The Knickerbocker News, dealt with the tragedy. The editorial cartoon at right, by long-time Times Union cartoonist Hy Rosen, ran on Sunday, Nov. 24, 1963, as did the Times Union editorial below, with the headline, "Our Duty Today." The paper devoted its editorial space on the first day after the assassination to three psalms (48: 1-7; 90: 1-6 and 13-16; and 130: 1-4, 7 and 8).
This nation in its tragic desolation, finds such solace as it may in the quiet authority with which President Lyndon B. Johnson has assumed the grave responsibilities that now must be his.
"We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship," said John F. Kennedy those scant months ago when he took up the mantle of the presidency.
The burden and the hardship which were his as leader of the Free World were recognized by each of us who honored his fortitude and selflessness in carrying so very much more than his share of burden and hardship in the name of justice and peace.
The price, unpredictable and unthinkable, was exacted as fully as the burden, the hardship.
President Johnson, one of the most dedicated public servants in the country's entire history, offers no less than his heroic, martyred predecessor who had pledged, "I do not shrink from this responsibility."
One of the great facts of American political life is the continuity of our inspired government, and today this government goes on, sorrowfully and in grievous shock —but without hesitation to meet the destiny to which John F. Kennedy and that body of patriots to which he rightfully belonged, have pointed it.
The clock of the world stopped when President Kennedy garnered up the legacy of hatred which exacted the last full measure of devotion. With awful insistence that we must not be found wanting, we can only resolve to honor his name and memory by going forward under the leadership of the new Chief of State.
— Times Union, Nov. 24, 1963