For Thomas R. Jolly, politics was not always destined to become such an important part of life. An early interest was sparked by Professor Jack Dempsey, but it was the extraordinary events of the 1960s that transformed that interest into something much deeper. Presidents, assassinations, campaigns, voting, and the people he encountered all helped shape the direction his life would eventually take.
An Interest That Began to Grow
Professor Dempsey helped spark Tom’s interest in politics, but the country around him was changing quickly. The 1960s brought events that were impossible for a young man interested in government to ignore.
Tom was stationed in Germany in the fall of 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22. Although he was thousands of miles from home, he remembers the shock as overwhelming. Kennedy had represented youth, intelligence, optimism, and what seemed like a new era for many Americans of Tom’s generation.
Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as President aboard Air Force One shortly afterward. Tom later came to appreciate Johnson’s domestic accomplishments, even though many young Americans initially saw a sharp contrast between Kennedy and Johnson.
Robert Kennedy and the 1968 Campaign
By 1968, Tom was no longer simply observing politics. He became involved in Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in Indiana, giving him a close look at how campaigns actually worked.
Indiana offered Tom his first exposure to what he describes as the realities of machine politics. Kennedy was competing against Governor Roger Branigin and Senator Eugene McCarthy in the Democratic primary. Tom learned about political pressure surrounding voting and the work required to protect a person’s ability to cast a ballot freely.
Kennedy volunteers were assigned to polling places throughout Indianapolis. Tom was one of them. Their responsibility was simple but important: make sure each voter could enter the booth alone and vote without intimidation.
The experience gave Tom his first real lesson in how hard people sometimes had to fight simply to exercise the right to vote.
A Victory in Indiana
The campaign’s work paid off. Robert Kennedy won Indiana with 42.3 percent of the vote, ahead of Branigin and McCarthy. African American voters and white working-class voters formed the coalition that helped carry Kennedy to victory.
For Tom, the victory was especially meaningful because he spent election week working in one of the predominantly African American wards assigned to his volunteer team. But his memories of Indiana extend far beyond the final election results.
A Night Tom Never Forgot
On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. That evening, Robert Kennedy was scheduled to speak in a predominantly African American neighborhood in Indianapolis.
Despite concerns about security, Kennedy went ahead with the appearance. Many people waiting for him had not yet heard that Dr. King had been killed. Kennedy delivered the terrible news himself and spoke about grief, compassion, understanding, and the need to reject hatred and revenge.
Tom describes it as one of the most extraordinary political addresses he ever encountered. While violence followed Dr. King’s death in many American cities, Indianapolis remained peaceful that night. More than half a century later, Tom still remembered Kennedy’s message of unity and compassion.
From Interest to Lifelong Passion
The 1960s gave Tom more than an education in politics. They allowed him to witness how leaders responded during some of the country’s most difficult moments and how ordinary people participated in campaigns and elections.
Those experiences helped prepare him for what came next. In December 1968, Tom arrived in Washington. Before long, John Dingell helped him obtain a position with the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress, introducing him to Capitol Hill and the inner workings of Congress.
What had begun as an interest had become a passion. Politics would remain at the center of Tom Jolly’s life for decades, bringing him into Washington, public policy, remarkable friendships, and experiences he could never have imagined when that interest first began.
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