Fifty-six years after he was assassinated in Texas, a local historian is looking back on the life and legacy of President John F. Kennedy and how his "Camelot" compares to the times we are living in now.

Pace University history professor Dr. Durahn Taylor says short-term expectations also died on Nov. 22, 1963, but not long-term hopes.

"John F. Kennedy worked to give Americans a hope and goals to make a better future, a better country and a better world," says Taylor.

Taylor says in very divided times, it's hard to see what could bring the country back together.

"We remember JFK's assassination, we remember the Challenger explosion and of course we remember 9/11," says Taylor. "Those are the times that we tend to think of coming together as a country. It's good that we do. But it shouldn't take that."