Teenage Bill Clinton Shaking Hands With President John F. Kennedy on July 24, 1963

On July 24, 1963, sixteen-year-old Bill Clinton from Hot Springs, Arkansas, was one of the boys gathered in the Rose Garden at the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy as part of the American Legion’s Boys Nation visit to the nation’s capital. President Kennedy’s life and legacy inspired generations of young Americans, including President Clinton, to lives of public service in order to improve their communities, their nation and their world.

Kennedy was fresh off a successful European tour that included his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in front of a crowd of 450,000 in West Berlin. He addressed a much smaller crowd that sunny summer day, speaking of the importance of public service. He also praised the students for their civil rights resolution, noting that earlier that week the annual meeting of the National Governors Association had been unable to pass a similar resolution, and remained divided over the issue.

Kennedy then moved into the crowd to meet the students. Clinton later recalled the moment, saying, “I was about the third or fourth person in, and…I sort of muscled my way up (to the front).” Their interaction was brief, a firm handshake before Kennedy moved on to the next student.

The impact of that moment was obvious almost immediately. According to several of his fellow delegates, Clinton spent the bus ride back to the Boys Nation dorms talking about the event. As future Minnesota Congressman Jim Ramstad recalled, Clinton said to him, “Someday, I’m going to have that job.”