United StatesWho was Robert F. Kennedy?
Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968) was a lawyer and Navy veteran who made his name as a Senate investigator of labor racketeering and managed his brother John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. As attorney general from 1961 to 1964 he led the federal response to organized crime and to the civil rights crisis, and he was a central adviser during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Elected senator from New York in 1964, he turned against the Vietnam War and focused on poverty and race. He entered the 1968 Democratic presidential race and was shot in Los Angeles just after winning the California primary, dying the next day.
Political views
Built the first coordinated federal program against organized crime and pursued Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa, who was convicted in 1964.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSent federal marshals to enforce James Meredith's admission to the University of Mississippi and worked to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHelped develop the naval blockade strategy during the Cuban Missile Crisis and met secretly with the Soviet ambassador to resolve it.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgUrged a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam and by 1967 called the war in Vietnam immoral.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFounded the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation to improve housing and jobs in a poor Brooklyn neighborhood.
Source: rfkhumanrights.orgSupported Cesar Chavez's striking farmworkers and spoke against apartheid during a 1966 visit to South Africa.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgCo-sponsored a 1965 bill restricting mail-order gun sales, a precursor of the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Legacy
Admirers see Kennedy as a figure who grew from a hard-edged political operative into a voice for the poor, Black Americans, farmworkers and opponents of the war, and his 1968 campaign drew support across racial and class lines. Some historians rank him among the most effective attorneys general. Critics recall his early work for Senator Joseph McCarthy's subcommittee, a reputation for ruthlessness, his oversight of covert operations against Cuba, and his authorization of FBI wiretaps on Martin Luther King Jr. His assassination at 42 left his potential presidency a matter of lasting speculation.
In their words
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice towards those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.