Robert F. Kennedy: Address at the University of California, Berkeley

About the Author

Born in 1925 in Brookline, Massachusetts, Robert F. Kennedy was the seventh of nine children of a close-knit political family. After serving in the military and then graduating from college and law school, Kennedy became campaign manager for his brother John F. Kennedy's successful bid to reach the U.S. Senate in 1952. Throughout the 1950s Robert Kennedy served on a number of Senate committees as legal counsel and made a name for himself in hearings that investigated labor racketeering. In 1960 he managed John's successful presidential campaign, and he served in his brother's administration as attorney general and one of his closest advisers. Robert Kennedy spearheaded the administration's participation in the civil rights movement, especially the drive to integrate universities and protect the rights of blacks in public accommodations. At the same time he continued his pursuit of labor union corruption, targeting the International Brotherhood of Teamsters president James Hoffa.

In the aftermath of President Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, Robert Kennedy resigned from the cabinet and sought election to the U.S. Senate from New York, winning a seat in 1964. Many people expected him to carry on in his brother's footsteps, anticipating that he might one day thereby reclaim the White House. At the same time, they noticed that he had become more philosophical and reflective, prone to engage in battles for the underprivileged in contests his older brother would have shunned. Visits to South American nations and to South Africa reinforced Kennedy's impression that the United States needed to play a leading role in the politics of developing countries and in battling against racism, oppression, and poverty. Somewhat more slowly, he came to question the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, believing the American military action to be counterproductive.

After much hesitation, Kennedy decided to challenge Lyndon B. Johnson for the Democratic nomination for president in 1968. When Johnson unexpectedly withdrew, Kennedy found himself competing against the Minnesota senator Eugene McCarthy in a series of primaries, while Vice President Hubert Humphrey prepared to battle Kennedy and McCarthy for the nomination at the party's convention in Chicago that August. Although Kennedy won several primaries, McCarthy bested him elsewhere, and the two men faced off in California in June. Kennedy claimed victory, but moments after he addressed a crowd celebrating his triumph at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles he was felled by an assassin's bullet. Kennedy died on June 6. After an emotional funeral ceremony, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, near where his brother had been laid to rest nearly five years earlier.

Kennedy's death left many people wondering what might have been. Skeptics continued to portray him as a ruthlessly ambitious politician; supporters believed that they had seen Kennedy evolve into a far more compassionate and thoughtful leader who was committed to fundamental changes in accordance with his principled political beliefs. It is a sign of how he could arouse such deep emotions that it has taken some time for subsequent generations to arrive at a more balanced assessment of the person of Robert Kennedy, his political career, and to the degree to which he might have changed the United States had he lived.