Robert F. Kennedy and His Timeless Message for America
On the night Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Senator Robert F. Kennedy brought people together. Almost most two months later to the day, Kennedy too was assasinated.
Today, June 5, 2023, is the 55th commemoration of the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. I use the word commemoration rather than anniversary. The latter word denotes something happy; commemorationpays homage to more somber hours, things that should be remembered for reasons sad and difficult.
I am too young to recall when his older brother President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, but Robert Kennedy’s assassination is burnished in my memory. I was almost done with third grade, not quite the beginning of summer vacation. On the morning of June 6, I watched news bulletins on the black and white television in my parents' living room. Robert Kennedy was dead. I ran to tell Mom and Dad, who probably already knew. The two brothers loomed large in my Kennedy Democrat household.
Remembrance and Never Forgetting
The assassination spoke to me. It was one of those crystalline moments, just as President Kennedy's assassination was to people a few years older than me and 9/11 to a later generation. It said you are part of something bigger than yourself. As I grew older I read with intensity Robert F. Kennedy’s words, speeches, and biographies. The lessons learned were fundamentals in decency, speaking to how we are all interconnected as a nation and a world.
For years I was filled with inexplicable sadness every June 5, something I did not understand. Finally, it struck me: this was the day that Robert Kennedy died. A man who united people across so many different social lines: race, faith, class, and generations. Kennedy certainly was not always a paragon of what became his legacy. His early work for Senator Joseph McCarthy is difficult to comprehend, let alone accept. One cannot overlook Kennedy's pit-bull reputation for doing anything necessary to get his brother elected to congress, then senate, then the presidency, and his subsequent role of top lieutenant and consigliere as President Kennedy’s attorney general. Never mind who got knocked around in the battle. He did what he had to do support his brother, no matter what. That ethos earned Kennedy the nickname “Ruthless Bobby.” His approval of secret wiretaps on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the behest of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover is unconscionable.
And yet….
From Tragedy, Transformation
It was after his brother's assassination that Robert F. Kennedy becomes my hero. His plunge into philosophical study of the ancient Greeks and his own Roman Catholicism, searching for the deeper meanings of life, is complex. Kennedy emerged a different man after this intense period of self-reflection. Ruthless Bobby transformed into something stronger, a man of compassion driven by the firm conviction that we could repair our nation’s faults, build on its strengths, and constantly improve the ongoing great experiment that is America.
The children of John and Robert Kennedy often report that people come up to them and say, “your father had profound impact on my own life.” I am one of those people. When his son Chris Kennedy ran for Governor of Illinois in the 2018 primary election, I went up to him at a campaign rally. Those are the words I spoke to him, though I'm sure Chris had heard a variation on them countless times. He held my hand and said, "Thank you. That's so sweet of you." Even now, I as I type these words, my eyes tear up.
Kennedy’s Vision of a Better America
In my writing, in my work as a teacher, I like to think that Robert F. Kennedy has some influence. I write about the triumph of good people over bad, even in the face of unspeakable tragedies and unmitigated evils. Many of my college writing students came from hard backgrounds; some are DACA students with compounded troubles. In my classrooms everyone is demanded to be their best, to express themselves fully and without reservation. What they have to say matters. I always conclude my semesters with words of wisdom far beyond my poor ability to express myself. I have more or less settled on Kennedy's speech the night Dr. King was assassinated, April 4, 1968. Now running for president himself, Kennedy was scheduled to make a campaign appearance in an impoverished and mostly African American Indianapolis ghetto.
One can only imagine what thoughts were going through his mind that night, not even five years after his brother was killed. Kennedy knew that he had to say something. Members of his campaign staff told him not to go out there, that it was too dangerous. Yet one member of the Kennedy team, future congressman John L. Lewis, disagreed. This was the time, this was the place for a leader to speak. It must be done.
Kennedy was the right man for that dark American moment. He stood on the back of a flatbed truck (imagine a campaign rally like that today!). Before Kennedy spoke, he asked his team, "do they know about Martin Luther King?" No, the crowd did not. He opened by telling the rally-goers that he had some sad news—and screams filled the air after he told them what had happened just a few hours before in Memphis.
Kennedy then spoke to larger issues. Though he had prepared a few remarks, he never looked at his notes. Instead, Kennedy kept them rolled up in his hand. His extemporaneous words came not from the head but from the heart. That night, riot-fueled fires burned through major urban areas across the country. Not in Indianapolis. Many credit Kennedy's speech as the balm needed at that difficult time in that difficult hour.
And then, almost two months to the day after King was murdered, Kennedy himself was struck down by an assassin's bullets. Today the spot where he gave that speech is a park honoring Kennedy and King, the Landmark for Peace Memorial. I often think of this speech. It is not of regret or sadness, but as Kennedy said "…of love, and wisdom, and compassion towards one another…”
Those words delivered on that awful April night, one of the most powerful speeches of the modern era, reaches across the decades, speaking to the generations of 2023, a country still torn by polarization, anger, mistrust, and hatred. Robert F. Kennedy sustains us with his rallying cry for decency and goodness, forever his visionary aspiration for America.
We all have those moments when a national event resonates on a deeper level. What made a profound impact on you? Share your stories in the space below or on my Twitter @realarnieb. And check out my website for more on my writing: www.arniebernstein.com.