John R. Reilly

Who was John R. Reilly?

John Richard Reilly was an adviser to a number of Democratic Party presidents and presidential candidates.

Reilly was born in Dubuque, Iowa, on June 4, 1928, as the only child of William and Stella Reilly. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa in 1952 and was granted a law degree in 1955. After his graduation from law school, Reilly was hired as an attorney working in the antitrust division of the United States Department of Justice. He joined John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign and was hired as an aide by Attorney General of the United States Robert F. Kennedy.

Reilly was given the assignment by the Kennedy administration to attend the speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as part of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Roger Mudd reported that Reilly told him that he was positioned on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with a switch that would be used to cut off Dr. King's I Have a Dream speech "if the rhetoric got too inflammatory".