“I think there was generally a sense of revulsion to the general McCarthy-like, Nixon-like focus on finding communists under every bed and in every department of the government,” Henning notes.

With topics such as civil rights growing more and more contentious, students generally thought that the election of Kennedy could bring about the major changes they sought.

“People bought into the idea that maybe we could actually change something about the country,” Henning says. “People were interested in new political stuff nationally. I think Kennedy’s candidacy provided an outlet.”

But even Kennedy faced his own hurdles to election, among them his Catholicism—Kennedy is the only Catholic President.

“Prior to Kennedy, the idea of a Catholic being elected President was pretty far-fetched,” Henning notes.

Kennedy won the electoral vote over Nixon 303 to 219, though the margin of the popular vote was within .1 of a percent.

By inauguration day in the winter of 1961, Kennedy’s boyish bravado had instilled a sense of optimism in many students and throughout the nation, according to Henning.

“Kennedy represented youth, a breakthrough with regard to giving voice to people previously unrepresented at the highest level of government,” Henning says.

Even after his election, Kennedy continued to inspire Harvard’s student body, particularly in his call to service as embodied in his famous inauguration speech.

“It had an impact on me because I up and joined the Peace Corps,” Leed says, “Most people bought into that. We were waiting to hear something like that. That was a real watershed time in America.”

—Staff writer Brian A. Feldman can be reached at bfeldman@college.harvard.edu.