The usual hectic pace of the day took a turn when the news arrived. One by one, shoppers and workers turned their attention to the television screens.

Those closest to each other huddled together in front of the wall of different sized sets. Moments later, about a hundred people stood silent and motionless as a Dallas reporter broke the news in a broken voice: President John F. Kennedy was dead.

“A small gray-haired woman carrying a shopping bag put it down and looked at her watch. It was 2:15 p.m. “She had been watching TV for 15 or 20 minutes and heard about the assassination attempt,” said Charles McDowell Jr., a reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Now tears came to her eyes, she picked up her shopping bag and quickly walked away.”

Wednesday marks 60 years since Kennedy was struck while driving a Lincoln Continental convertible through the streets of Dallas in a seismic event that stunned the nation and the world. In a Times-Dispatch report titled “Shocked, Numbed Richmond Hears the News,” McDowell Jr. wrote about how Richmonders responded to the assassination.

Inside the department store, people stood near the televisions, waiting for news. They watched as a clergyman in Dallas prepared a prayer for the crowd that had just waved to the president. As he began his prayer, the people in the store bowed their heads.

At the old St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church on Franklin Street, people began streaming in and kneeling at the altar.

A taxi driver at the bus station heard about the initial reports, but not about the president’s death. Then, as he stopped at a traffic light at Fourth and Broad streets, he heard the news on the radio in the car next to him.

At Maggie Walker High School, Principal Harry Williams was tasked with informing students. After writing a message and sending runners to each classroom, he watched as three girls cried on the stairs. Others volunteered to help the chief administrator lower the flag to half staff.

At a small restaurant near Byrd Park, the normally boisterous crowd fell silent as they listened to reporter Charles Collingwood’s broadcast detailing the tragic events in Dallas.

“For a while, all that could be heard other than the television was the sloshing of a waitress washing dishes behind the counter,” said the Nov. 23, 1963, Saturday edition of the Times-Dispatch.

This silence continued throughout the city. In the hair salon at the Hotel John Marshall, all the chairs faced the television. The only other noises were the clicking of scissors and the occasional hum of electric clippers, McDowell reported.

Most activities planned for Friday evening have been canceled or postponed.

While Richmond and the state favored Republican Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, Kennedy held on to the city’s black population as he supported civil rights in his campaign. Many of the city’s early commemorations were held in the names of black leaders.

The Richmond Crusade for Voters organized an impromptu memorial service on the steps of the state capitol. There, 500 people mourned the late president and heard prayers and speeches from representatives of various religious and civil rights organizations. Former city council member and prominent civil rights activist Oliver Hill was among the participants.

Lynda Byrd-Harden, former secretary of the Virginia branch of the NAACP, was attending Mount Olive Elementary School in King William County when she learned of Kennedy’s assassination. In a 30th anniversary story that appeared in the Times-Dispatch on Tuesday, November 23, 1993, Byrd Harden recalled children running screaming from classrooms when news of the murder broke.

“I think one of the most disappointing things for people of my generation was that we think we may have missed all the opportunities to make a difference,” Byrd-Harden said. “What John Kennedy symbolized was peace and hope, the hope that people would work together in peace and harmony.”