Everyone is familiar with JFK, but what most people don't know about the Kennedy family is that they have two major government figures, and the same amount of assassinations. JFK's little brother, Robert F. Kennedy, was born in 1925 as the seventh child in nine. His family was already very politically active - with his father being the US Ambassador to the UK and his mother being the daughter of a Boston politician. However, it took him a while to outgrow the shadow of his older siblings. He even served as an apprentice to his own brother, a private, in WW2. Then, determined to have success of his own, Kennedy moved back to Massachusetts to get his pre-law degree from Harvard. He then graduated and moved onto law school at the University of Virginia in Arlington.
Immediatly out of law school, he moved onto being a lawyer for the US Department of Justice and served as campaign manager for his more famous brother's senatorial campaign. Then, in the year 1952, during the height of McCarthyism, Robert worked for a subcommittee on Investigations working under Joseph McCarthy himself. After his brother won the presidency, his career skyrocketed. John appointed his little brother as Attorney General, and Robert took the opportunity to make as much justice as he possibly could. He actively sought out voter fraud and organized crime, as well as assisted with the negotiations of labor unions. However, he was most famously known for his contributions to the civil rights movement. When the first black girl to ever attend a segregated school was receiving threats, RFK sent armed troops to protect her.
His life was changed when his brother was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald. The family took a tremendous loss, while at the same time they had just lost their infant son, Patrick. However, despite it all, RFK still stayed Attorney General for a while after president Lyndon B. Johnson took over the presidency. When he finally resigned, he announced his campaign to represent the state of New York for the senate. The democrats were thrilled that this was happening - he was very antiwar and socially progressive. He openly criticized Johnson's escalation of the Vietnam war, and travelled across the world to learn more about human rights violations and social justice issues. He won the position of senator, and then set his sights on being the next president of the United States in the election of 1968.
Unfortunately, after giving a speech about his latest primary win, RFK was also assassinated in a kitchen corridor of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He was assasinated by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant with Jordanian citizenship. After the death of the senator the next day, Sirhan was tried and convicted for murder and was originally given the death penalty. However, the California court system had outlawed the death penalty, so Sirhan was given life in prison without parole. He still remains in Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego to this day.
This post is really good! I didn't know anything about RFK, so all this information was cool to read about, especially because RFK just came up in class. It's really sad how RFK was assassinated just like his brother, but I hope that his interesting legacy lives on out of the shadow of his brother, as he did a lot for the country as well.
ReplyDeleteThis was such an interesting post and I really enjoyed learning more about RFK. He had an amazing career that I knew nothing about. Why did Sirhan assassinate RFK?
ReplyDeleteBefore reading this I didn't know much about RFK. It is interesting that he was so focused on creating justice as the attorney general. The story of him sending armed guards to project a young black girl at school is very interesting and speaks to his support of the civil rights movement.
ReplyDeleteI know we had learned a little bit about RFK in class, but I'm glad I got to learn even more about him through your post! It's interesting to learn about how he was such an advocate for social justice (such as when he sent troops to assist the first black girl in a segregated school). That also seems to contradict a bit with how he worked under McCarthy, since there wasn't much justice in McCarthyism. I guess that goes to show how, during the time, people saw communism as a greater threat to liberty than a lack of justice through wrongful/ungrounded accusations.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be more interesting if we can have political context on the motives behind the assassination of RFK. Does the fact that RFK runs political (diplomatic) errands for JFK have anything to do with his assassination? Also, because of his active involvement in Cold War diplomacy, I think it would be an interesting idea of explore the Russian attitude towards his political character.
ReplyDeleteI believe RFK was mentioned once or twice in class but I remembered very little about him. I did not know how RFK was involved in the civil rights movement or that he was also tragically assassinated.
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