Fifty-four years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, two U.S. lawmakers who lived through the ordeal are calling for the declassification of thousands of pages of long-secret government documents related to his death.

The disclosure, they believe, will answer a question that has for half a century plagued the American public: Did anyone help or have knowledge of Lee Harvey Oswald’s plan to kill Kennedy?

“I believe the American public needs to know the truth,” said Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., who along with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is leading a congressional effort to declassify thousands of documents and recordings compiled by the CIA and FBI. 

“It’s still hard for me to believe it was one man, but at the same time I have no proof that it wasn’t,” said Jones, who watched on live television as Oswald, awaiting transfer to a county jail, was shot by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby two days after Oswald assassinated Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.