This photograph was taken in 1961 shortly after John F. Kennedy was sworn in as President of the United States and before the passing of Sam Rayburn that November. Here then Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, President Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson hold hands in a gesture of teamwork for the upcoming Congress. In the 1960 campaign, Senators Kennedy and Johnson championed for an increase in the minimum wage, federal aid to education and an expanded housing proposal. Impressed by Kennedy’s second debate against Republican candidate Richard Nixon, Rayburn exclaimed “My God, the things that boy knows!” and supported him. When he returned for the 87th Congress, about to be 80 years old, Speaker Rayburn knew he had a difficult task ahead of him getting this through a stubborn Democratic conservative coalition that held its power within the Committee on Rules, which in the past had blocked any progressive legislation from reaching the floor. He later described this as the, “worst fight of my life,” knowing full well if he failed, the new administration of Kennedy’s would look like a failure from the start as well.