JFK assassination class in Royal Oak helps students confront conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories spread like wildfire after the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, earning millions of views amid speculation about the involvement of the “deep state,” the Secret Service, the Trump campaign and President Joe Biden.

So how do you debunk the false narratives, facts taken out of context, doctored photos and rumors treated as gospel that are so prevalent and popular on the web?

Maybe the answer lies in educational efforts like the class on who killed JFK that has been a staple for more than three decades (and will be offered again this fall starting Sept. 19) at Royal Oak’s Oakland Community College campus.

Topics in History: The JFK Assassination is a three-credit history course taught by Ron Burda and Michael Vollbach that runs for 12 weeks and focuses on one of the most shocking and significant events of the 20th century — a tragedy that has drawn generations of Americans down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.

The first half of the course covers who President John F. Kennedy was and what happened in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. when he was shot to death while riding in a motorcade. It also explores the findings of two government investigations: the 1964 Warren Commission Report that concluded Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin and the 1979 U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations Report that viewed Kennedy’s death as probably the result of a conspiracy.

”The whole idea of that first half is we tell the students be on the lookout for suspects because we want you to try to solve this the best way you know how,” says Burda.

In the second half, as the course description puts it, “We intend to put Lee Harvey Oswald on trial.” Relying on Warren Commission testimony and other research sources, students get to role-play as real people connected to the case at a mock court proceeding.

There are two weeks of prosecution witnesses and two weeks of defense witnesses, according to Burda, in the simulation of a trial that never happened in real life because Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald two days after the JFK assassination as he was being transferred to a county jail.

After the testimony, the students take on the ultimate responsibility in any trial. “The very last class, the class gets to deliberate as a jury and come to a conclusion if they can,” says Burda.

Students, of course, don’t have to definitively prove who killed Kennedy, a task that has yet to be accomplished by generations of JFK assassination buffs. The only national consensus on who most likely was responsible was revealed in a 2023 Gallup poll done for the 60th anniversary of Kennedy’s death. It found that that 65% of adults think Oswald worked with others to kill Kennedy, while 29% think it was Oswald’s doing alone.

What students are expected to do is examine the case and reach conclusions by seeking out the facts and weighing the legitimate evidence. It’s an approach that’s the total opposite of accepting conspiracy theories at face value.

”It’s the back-door way to get students to be critical thinkers,” says Burda. “If we can get them interested in this topic — and usually every class, we can get at least of few of them really interested in the topic — then they’re on the path to becoming lifelong active learners and critical thinkers. That’s really our goal.”

The JFK assassination continues to fascinate the public with its trickles of new information and long legacy of competing theories on whether the CIA, the Mafia, Cuba or others were involved.

A year ago, former Secret Service agent Paul Landis, who’s in his late 80s, revealed that he put a bullet he found in the presidential limousine in his pocket and then placed it on a gurney at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where Kennedy was rushed after being shot. He shared the story in his book released in 2023, “The Final Witness: A Kennedy Secret Service Agent Breaks His Silence After 60 Years.”

Also in 2023, director Rob Reiner and journalist and producer Soledad O’Brien showcased interviews with witnesses, government officials and forensic analysts in their 10-episode podcast “Who Killed JFK?” Reiner and O’Brien claimed to have evidence on who really was the culprit in what Reiner described as America’s best-known murder mystery, according to Axios.  

Burda, an adjunct professor and an attorney with a law practice based in St. Clair Shores, and Vollbach, a full-time history professor, have taught the JFK assassination course since 1993 and earned recognition for their innovative methods.

In November 2023, they spoke about their class at a symposium on the 60th anniversary of the JFK assassination held by the Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law at Pittsburgh’s Dusquene University.

Burda says students have reached different jury outcomes over the years. “We give them a jury verdict form that says Oswald did it alone, Oswald did it with others … or Oswald is innocent,” he explains.

He and Vollbach agree that JFK’s assassination wasn’t the result of Oswald as a lone gunman. ”We don’t know who did it, but there is very persuasive evidence that Oswald never fired a rifle that day,” says Burda.

As for the recent Trump assassination attempt theories, Burda sees them as an argument for having the OCC class and others that teach younger generations how to process news and information.

”People believe what, emotionally, they want to happen, I guess,” he muses. “It’s crazy, but it makes it more important, as far as we’re concerned, to try to develop some critical thinkers to go out there and take a look at things.”

Says Burda, “We need to stimulate more of this kind of thinking in students, so that when they go out into the so-called real world, they’re better equipped.”

For more information on “The JFK Assassination” history class and enrollment, go to the official Oakland Community College website.

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.