GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion s an American former United States Secret Service agent – the first African-American Secret Service agent assigned to the Presidential Protective Division, appointed by John F. Kennedy in 1961.He was fired from the Secret Service after he was charged in 1964 with accepting a bribe in relation to a counterfeiting case he was involved with. Convicted by a jury, he was ultimately sentenced to six years in prison.Today in our History – November 22, 1963 – Abraham W. Bolden, was in Dallas, Texas assigned to President John F. Kennedy when he was assonated.Abraham Bolden Sr., the first African-American Secret Service agent assigned to the White House detail, still finds humor in his life, despite having faced formidable challenges that would have defeated a lesser man.Bolden served three years in prison after being convicted of giving government documents to a known criminal in exchange for $50,000.The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago retaliated against Bolden after he complained to no avail to his Secret Service bosses and later to the public that Secret Service agents failed to protect President John F. Kennedy on the day he was assassinated because some of them considered the President a ‘nigger lover’ who was changing the country.Some of Bolden’s white Secret Service colleagues fabricated the charge against him as part of an elaborate cover-up that followed JFK’s assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. He details the evidence in his book, The Echo from Dealey Plaza: The True Story of The first African American on the White House Secret Service Detail and His Quest for Justice after the Assassination of JFK. The book was published in 2008.Bolden is 79 and he walks with the assistance of a metal walker. He has suffered three heart attacks and he endures severe back pain. He lives in a brick bungalow on a quiet street in Chicago, where all of his neighbors know who he is.President Kennedy met Bolden at the door of the men’s room at McCormick Place, Chicago’s convention center that borders Lake Michigan.Bolden was guarding the men’s restroom on April 28, 1961, so it could only be used by top political officials. It was a job normally assigned to a uniformed Chicago policeman, but his fellow Secret Service agents wanted to demean Bolden by assigning him the task.“It was very difficult because I was African-American. I wasn’t wearing a uniform and many people did not believe I was a Secret Service agent,” he said.Bolden was standing at his assigned post when he heard a rumble of footsteps coming down the stairs.Leading the group was President Kennedy, followed by Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner and Ill. Sen. Paul Douglas and Chicago Congress¬man William L. Dawson.“I stepped aside. I didn’t say hello, Mr. President,” Bolden recalled. But President Kennedy followed Bolden and asked him if he was a Chicago police officer or a Secret Service agent.Bolden told the president he was a Secret Service agent. “Has there been a Secret Service agent assign¬ed on the White House detail?” President Kennedy asked. “Not to my knowledge,” Bolden answered. The President asked Bolden if he would like to be the first. The president shook Bol¬den’s hand and cameramen snap¬ped photographs, but those photos have since disappeared. “The Secret Service did not want me to be seen with the President,” he said.President Kennedy arranged for Bolden to be assigned to the White House Secret Service detail. The President told Pierre Salinger, White House press secretary, that Bolden was the Jackie Robinson of the U.S. Secret Service.When the Kennedy family vacationed at Hyannis Port, Mass., the agents all lived together in a house on the compound. As the agents were driving to the compound, Secret Service Agent Bob Foster saw a Black woman in an Air Force uniform. “Thar goes a nigger,” he shouted before realizing that Bolden was in the car. Foster covered his mouth. “I was there, but they did not see me,” he said of the other agents.Agent Harvey Henderson, however, did not shy away from calling Bolden vicious names. Henderson said, “‘I am going to tell you something, and I don’t want you to ever forget it,” Henderson said. “You were born a nigger, and when you die, you’ll still be a nigger. You will always be nothing but a nigger. So act like one! ‘“It was at the Kennedy compound that Bolden learned how much some of the agents hated the President, calling him a “nigger lover” who was pushing integration on the country. “They wanted Lyndon Johnson, who was Ken¬nedy’s vice president in the White House, because he was a Southerner.It was a turbulent period in the nation’s history. Blacks demonstrated to integrate stores, lunch counters and better-paying jobs. In return, they were being met by police with water hoses, billy clubs, snarling dogs and angry white crowds.Bolden remained on the White House detail only 30 days. “I did not want to go to Dallas because I feared something would happen,” said Bolden, explaining that a month before President Kennedy’s assassination quick online loans with no credit check on Nov. 22, 1963, United Nations Ambassador Adlai Stevenson II had been physically attacked in Dallas by right-wing extremists. Stevenson was serving as the governor of Illinois at the time.Bolden doesn’t think Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shot killing JFK. He believes there were two other shooters, one inside Dal-Tex Building, a seven-story building, across the street from the Texas School Book Depository, where Oswald was located. The third shooter was on the grassy knoll. Oswald, however, did not fire the fatal shot, and he did not know about the existence of the other two shooters, Bolden said.Abraham Zapruder, who filmed President Kennedy’s assassination, rented offices in the Dal-Tex Building. Several witnesses said they heard several shots being fired from the Dal-Tex Building at President Kennedy’s open limousine.Credible Evidence President Kennedy Was To Be Killed In Chicago Or MiamiBefore President Kennedy’s assassination, the Secret Service had credible evidence that a gunman would attempt to kill the President either in Chicago or Miami, Bolden said. The Chicago office of the Secret Service never acted on the threats, Bolden said.After President Kennedy’s assassination, the information was rewritten to show that there was a threat to President Lyndon John¬son, who succeeded President Kennedy.Bolden, who was 29 and idealistic, went public with his concern that the Secret Service did not adequately protect President Ken¬nedy. He thought the truth would win out, but bureaucracy didn’t seek the truth; it sought to protect itself.The Secret Service concocted the charges that Bolden was planning to sell government documents for $50,000 to Joseph Spagnoli, a known criminal who lived in Villa Park, Ill., a Chicago suburb. Research more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make it a Campion day!