Robert F. Kennedy

1. Robert F. Kennedy History’s Greatest Leaders

2. Early Life • Robert Francis Kennedy was born on November 20, 1925, in Brookline, Massachusetts, the seventh child in the closely knit and competitive family of Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy. He came form a very wealthy family. • He attended Milton Academy and, after wartime service in the Navy, received his degree in government from Harvard University in 1948. He earned his law degree from the University of Virginia Law School three years later. • On June 17, 1950, Robert Kennedy married Ethel Skakel. With whom he would have 11 children.

3. Early Political Career • In 1952, he made his political debut as manager of his older brother John's successful campaign for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. • The following year, he served briefly on the staff of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy. • Disturbed by McCarthy's controversial tactics, Kennedy resigned from the staff after six months.

4. 1960-1961 • In 1960 he was the tireless and effective manager of John's presidential campaign. After the election, he was appointed Attorney General in President Kennedy's Cabinet. • While Attorney General he won respect for his diligent, effective and nonpartisan administration of the Department of Justice. • He launched a successful drive against organized crime (convictions up 800%). • He became increasingly committed to the rights of African Americans to vote, receive an equal education, and use public accommodations.

5. Attorney General • On September 1962, Robert Kennedy sent U.S. Marshals and troops to Oxford, Mississippi to enforce a Federal court order admitting the first African American student - James Meredith - to the University of Mississippi. • Robert Kennedy was not only President Kennedy's Attorney General, he was also his closest advisor and confidant. • As a result of this unique relationship, the Attorney General played a key role in several critical foreign policy decisions. During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisishe was instrumental in preventing nuclear war.

7. Senator • JFK’s assassination in 1963 would have a lasting impact on his life, and also led him to resign as the attorney general. • in 1964, ran successfully for the United States Senate from New York. • Effort to address the needs of the dispossessed and powerless in America - the poor, the young, racial minorities and Native Americans. He sought to bring the facts about poverty to the conscience of the American people, journeying into urban ghettos, Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta and migrant workers' camps.

8. Passionate Reformer • He sought to remedy the problems of poverty through legislation to encourage private industry to locate in poverty-stricken areas, thus creating jobs for the unemployed, and stressed the importance of work over welfare. • He committed to the advancement of human rights abroad. He traveled to Eastern Europe, Latin America and South Africa to share his belief that all people have a basic human right to participate in the political decisions that affect their lives and to criticize their government without fear of reprisal. • Kennedy was also absorbed during his Senate years by a quest to end the war in Vietnam.

9. South Africa: Ripple of Hope Speech • He also believed that those who strike out against injustice show the highest form of courage. "Each time a man stands up for an ideal," he said in a 1966 speech to South African students, "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."

10. 1968 Campaign for President • On March 16, 1968, Robert Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. • "an uproarious campaign, filled with enthusiasm and fun ... It was also a campaign moving in its sweep and passion.“ • Indeed, he challenged the complacent in American society and sought to bridge the great divides in American life - between the races, between the poor and the more affluent, between young and old, between order and dissent. • The campaign brought hope and challenge to an American people troubled by discontent and violence at home and war in Vietnam. He won critical primaries in Indiana and Nebraska and spoke to enthusiastic crowds across the nation.

11. Assassination • Robert Francis Kennedy was shot on June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California shortly after claiming victory in that state's crucial Democratic primary. • Although his life was cut short, Robert Kennedy's vision and ideals live on today. • He will be remembered by most as a man of infinite compassion, inspiring conviction, and unique empathy.