Steve Jaffe:   Now we come to a very special part of our conference, the “Profile in Courage Award.” Each year, CAPA honors someone who has made a bold commitment to exposing the truth about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Some have literally risked their lives. This year, we honor a man who has done both — former US Secret Service agent, Abraham Bolden. I will let him tell you his story. We hereby present the 2024 Profile in Courage Award to Abraham Bolden.

ABRAHAM BOLDEN:

In 1961, President Kennedy was coming to Chicago. They assigned me at the door where the President was going to enter McCormick Place. I was happy with the assignment but as fate would have it, they replaced me with a Chicago policeman near the washroom. I knew that something was amiss with that appointment because normally it required a full-fledged Secret Service agent stationed in the proximity of the President of the United States near the washroom. However, one thing that they didn’t take into consideration was the cosmic law of God. So, when the motorcade arrived at McCormick Place, I was pretty much, you might say, dejected, because I didn’t think that I would get a chance to see the President because the convention was going on a floor above the washroom that had been set aside for his use only.

At 8:30 PM on April 28, 1961, the motorcade stopped in front of McCormick Place, I was standing one floor down as the team of Mayor Daley and every Democratic politician in Chicago seemed like they were walking behind the President. I could only see the patent leather shoes that he was wearing. I was very sorry about that. But, as the cosmic laws of God would happen, the first thing that the President wanted to do was use the washroom, and there I stood. The President came down the steps and stopped right in front of me. And he asked me the question if there had ever been a Black Secret Service Agent in the White House Detail. I told him, “Not to my knowledge, Mr. President.” And I felt the electricity of brotherhood between the President and myself. The President asked me, “Would you like to be the first?” I said, “Yes, sir, Mr. President.” I knew the responsibility of the Secret Service. If I went to the White House Detail, I was willing to give my life for the presidency of the United States.

So, on June 6, 1961, I walked into history. I was assigned to the White House Detail in Washington, DC. to assist in protecting the life of the President. And I never met a more human person, a more fair-minded person than the President. One day, I could tell that President Kennedy saw me standing out in front of the Oval Office and he looked up and he said, “Mister Bolden, I see you made it.” All during my tenure in guard there, he was very kind to me. We had many conversations, often about civil rights. We talked about the struggle, and I could see the pain in the president’s face whenever he discussed what was going on with the racism in America. And he impressed me that he wanted to solve this problem. As a matter of fact, when I first traveled with the President to Massachusetts, he called all the Kennedy children together at his home and said, “This is Mr. Bolden. He is a Secret Service Agent. He’s guarding me. And if you have to address him for any reason, address him as Mr. Bolden.” And that almost brought tears to my eyes because here we were in the midst of an historic civil rights war amongst the Black and White.

The President introduced me to all the members of his family, including Joe Kennedy and Rose Kennedy. Mr. Joe Kennedy was in a wheelchair. He had a stroke. They were all very kind. The President was a watchful person. He was so watchful that when we went on a yacht ride one afternoon on Nantucket Sound, we were on the boat, a big yacht. But the President looked out for me, we went for the yacht ride, and he made sure that I was on the yacht. While I was on the yacht, sitting on the bar, on July the third, 1961, a Navy officer came out of the cabin door, walked over to me, he was carrying a tray of food. He walked over to a big brown leather chair where I was seated, and he said, “The President wants you to have lunch,” me, specifically. I thought this was marvelous. What is this thing? What cosmic connection has placed me in this position? All my life, I wanted to be in a position to learn, to develop a moral care, to help my people’s progress as citizens of the United States of America. The President was most of the time in agony because of a severe back problem that he had. But yet, he had noticed that I was being ill-treated by some members of the Secret Service, and he made sure I was on Air Force One and then on Marine One, the helicopter, on the way back to Washington, DC. and the White House.

I had a conversation with the President, in which he asked me, “Mr. Bolden, do you plan to make the Secret Service a career?” I said, “No, sir, Mr. President.” I told him I would like to be a diplomat to one of the African countries.” The President introduced me to his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Then the President said, “Well, if you learn to speak in African dialect, which you should have some time to learn, I’ll make you a promise that once you are qualified, I will make you an ambassador to one of the United Nations.” That was a promise that he made, and I know he was a man for his word. Now, one thing I saw about the President was that he was so kind. I remember when he introduced me to Pierre Salinger in the White House, he said, “This is Mr. Abraham Bolden, the Jackie Robinson of the U. S. Secret Service.”

Then, on July the third in Massachusetts, my superior agent, the special agent in charge of the shift, called my name.

We were sitting there watching the news and I heard my supervisor yell, “Bolden!” and motion me over to the couch where he was sitting. “I want to tell you one thing,” he said, “and don’t you ever forget this. You are a nigger now and you will always be a nigger, and you’ll never be anything else but a nigger.” I got up and left.

Now, going back to the 29th of June, I happened to be standing in front of the Oval Office door. President Johnson came in for a visit with President Kennedy. I happened to be standing right in front of the Oval Office door when Johnson walked in, and the first thing that he said to Bobby Kennedy and President Kennedy in the office, “You, son of a bitch, they are trying to send me to prison about some goddamn crap. When the door closed, I could hear them shouting. President Johnson walked out of the open door, and he was redder than a sack of beets. And he turned as he left the Oval Office and said, “You son of a bitch, you better stop effing with me. And he pointed his finger. Then he saw me there.

I heard Vice President Johnson say, “Who is that boy standing in front of the office door?” And his chauffeur told him, “Well, he had to be from the Secret Service, or he couldn’t be standing there.” But when I had my exit interview with my superior officer, I remembered that my oath required that I discuss that very incident with him. I remember thinking that if anything happened to the President, Vice President Johnson could be involved. That is not a proven fact today. All I can say is that that was my belief at the time. And then all of my fears and predictions came true. The President’s head was shattered in Dallas, Texas, at approximately 12:30 pm in the afternoon, November 22, 1963. And I witnessed, that is I saw for myself, various investigations being covered up by the Secret Service. Not only did they not do their duty, but they carried out all the negative activities that I had warned the chief of the secret service about. Well – now — I was the person that was marked for exile from the Secret Service. I knew it, but I knew that somebody had to stand up and let the American people know what happened to our president.

And there was the fact that my own government was concealing facts about his assassination. I discussed it with my wife, Barbara. I said, “I can’t live with this. I have to speak out. I owe that to the American people. I owe that to the Kennedy family. I owe it to myself. I owe it to God.” She looked up at me and said, “Well, you know they’re going to come after you.” I said, “I know. I just can’t help it. Just can’t help it.” So now they began to watch me because I complained about the protection of President Kennedy when he came to Chicago on a couple of occasions. As a matter of fact, the first assassination attempt, was supposed to take place here in Chicago, Illinois. I had information that some Cuban exiles were trying to assassinate the President when he came to Chicago on November the 2nd to view an Army–Air Force football game. I was the person who raised so many complaints about his protection and brought out the fact in a meeting with the Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office that it was our duty and obligation as government.

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