Robert Kennedy
Robert Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on November 20, 1925. During World War II, Kennedy served in the U.S. Navy.
In 1946 he was an apprentice seaman on the shakedown cruise of a naval destroyer named for his eldest brother, Joseph Kennedy Jr. (1915-1944), a Navy pilot killed during the war.
After completing his military service, in 1948 Kennedy graduated from Harvard University, the alma mater of his father and older brothers. He went on to attend law school at the University of Virginia, earning his degree in 1951.
In 1960, he managed the presidential campaign of his brother, John F. Kennedy. When JFK was elected, he appointed Robert as U.S. attorney general. Kennedy served as the U.S. attorney general from 1961 to 1964 and as a U.S. senator from New York from 1965 to 1968.
Robert Kennedy fought organized crime and worked for civil rights for African Americans. He also served as a close advisor to the president. In the Senate, he was a committed advocate of the poor and racial minorities, and opposed escalation of the Vietnam War.
On June 5, 1968, while in Los Angeles campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Kennedy was shot. He died early the next day at age 42. Kennedy, the father of 11 children, was buried at Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery near the grave of his brother John.
The assassination of Robert Kennedy on June 5, 1968, has never attracted the same level of public fascination and passion as the 1963 assassination of his brother, President John F. Kennedy. But, the passing of Bobby, as many affectionately called him, may have impacted our country in a more significant manner.
Robert Kennedy was unique in American politics; he reached out to the poor and disenfranchised, he reached out to working class whites, he reached out to inner city blacks, he reached out to the migrant worker - the very classes of people most politicians of that time ignored.
Robert Kennedy was unique in American politics; he reached out to the poor and disenfranchised, he reached out to working class whites, he reached out to inner city blacks, he reached out to the migrant worker - the very classes of people most politicians of that time ignored.
He came from a place of privilege and money, yet passionately spoke for the victimized and the oppressed. Robert Kennedy embodied an attitude and idealism that is rare for any generation. By leading with an inspiring call to action he asked the American people of that time to support racial and educational equality, to accept environmental responsibility and to negotiate for peace in a war ravaged world. RFK asked Americans to believe that as individuals they could make a difference in the world.
He understood that America's real greatness came from empowering its citizens through equal opportunities to secure a better life, but Robert Kennedy's vision for a better tomorrow was not limited to the United States. He went to Poland and Latin America to tell them that their dream of freedom was obtainable, and when South Africans suffered the tyranny of apartheid, RFK was there to say:
He understood that America's real greatness came from empowering its citizens through equal opportunities to secure a better life, but Robert Kennedy's vision for a better tomorrow was not limited to the United States. He went to Poland and Latin America to tell them that their dream of freedom was obtainable, and when South Africans suffered the tyranny of apartheid, RFK was there to say:
- "Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. -
RFK
Bobby Kennedy - the ripple of hope...