RFK Bobby Kennedy

(Bill Eppridge/LIFE/Time Inc.)

November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968

R.F.K., R.I.P., Revisited
Earlier in the day, the vast St. Patrick’s Cathedral, all chandeliers and gold, was jammed with mourners. Senator Edward Kennedy spoke, his voice cracking as he struggled to say, “My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”
Now the long train carrying Robert F. Kennedy’s coffin rumbled south, passing miles and miles of people who had come to the railroad track to honor him, to say goodbye.

Remembering Bobby
John Parisella in The MetropolitaIn
The Bobby I remember is the one who literally grew before our very eyes. From the tragic assassination of his brother on November 22, 1963, we saw the transformation of Bobby Kennedy. From the ruthless, efficient backroom operative to a compassionate, inspiring and idealistic leader who was able to bring together rich and poor, old and young, black and white, and the disadvantaged to believe once again that politics was a noble endeavor and the ideals of America were worth cherishing and defending in the world. People cried when he died and his last remaining brother, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, eulogized him “as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it, who saw war and tried to stop it, who saw suffering and tried to heal it”.
This year we have witnessed an incredible and historic campaign within the Democratic Party. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have found inspiration and strength in the works and the example of Bobby Kennedy. Some see the current mobilization of young voters for Senator Obama as reminiscent of the youth of the sixties for Bobby.
While it is far too early to equate Obama with Kennedy, it is clear that a political leader able to inspire and mobilize is unique and sometimes comes only to a new generation of voters wishing to be empowered. Forty years ago, we heard this call. I never forget to mention that I was led to public service by the example of Bobby Kennedy. I often refer to his favorite quote: “Some people see things as they are and ask why? But, I dream of things that never were and ask why not?” In his times, words still mattered and he touched the spirit of America. This captures the essence of Bobby Kennedy and why it is worthwhile to remember him forty years later.
Memories Of Robert F. Kennedy
On the morning of June 5, 1968, millions of Americans woke to the shocking news that New York Sen. Robert Kennedy had been shot after winning California’s Democratic presidential primary. Kennedy – 42 years old – died the next day. The senator’s campaign staff included a young man named Jeff Greenfield, who is now, of course, CBS News’ senior political correspondent. Now, on the 40th anniversary of RFK’s assassination, Greenfield shares his memories.
People still ask, “what if?” Could he have been nominated, could he have been elected, could he have governed effectively?
We don’t know, can’t know. But did we lose a rare kind of public figure? That I think we do know.
Taking ‘No’ for an Answer, BY JOSEPH P. KENNEDY II
He lived by a moral compass that others, less certain of their direction, looked to for guidance. Even if what he asked was hard to hear and heed, he gave others the strength to believe not just in his guidance but in themselves.
The truth is, we all just plain loved him.
The Assassination of Robert Kennedy
RePosted
(WasIt was 40 years ago today, in the midst of a tumultuous election year, that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Robert Kennedy was shot in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel. In the days that followed, The Post editorial board tried to make sense of his shooting and his legacy.
Democracy Now! Special: Robert F. Kennedy’s Life and Legacy 40 Years After His Assassination
Forty years ago today, on June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy had just won the California Democratic primary, a major boost in his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Just after midnight, Kennedy addressed supporters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, in what would be the last moments of his life.Today, we spend the hour playing excerpts of rare Robert F. Kennedy speeches and the new documentary RFK Must Die: The Assassination of Bobby Kennedy. We also play a never-before broadcast address by Kennedy speaking to students at St. Lawrence University in Canton in 1966 and the man who recorded it. We also speak with journalist John Pilger who covered Kennedy’s campaign and was with him when he was shot, and we speak with labor organizer Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America, whose cause Kennedy championed.
Did Robert Kennedy run ‘The Last Campaign’?

RFK (PBS) The American Experience
Robert Francis Kennedy would almost certainly have been president if his violent death hadn’t intervened. He was brave, claims one biographer, “precisely because he was fearful and self-doubting.” This probing and perceptive biography reassesses the remarkable and tragic life of the third Kennedy son, the boy Joe Sr. called the “runt.”
Featuring extensive interviews with family members, friends, journalists, Washington insiders, and civil rights activists, the film chronicles the pivotal role RFK played in many of the major events of the 1960s — the Cuban Missile Crisis, the civil rights movement, the war in Vietnam. The film looks closely at Kennedy’s complicated relationships with some of the leading figures of his day, Martin Luther King and Lyndon B. Johnson, among them. And it reveals much about his personal world, his role as family mediator, his involvement with Marilyn Monroe, and his overwhelming grief and guilt following the assassination of his older brother.

Who was Bobby Kennedy?