Robert F. Kennedy

Robert Francis Kennedy was born on November 20, 1925, in Brookline, MassachusettsMassachusettsMassachusetts (officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States; its capital and largest city is Boston. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on February 6, 1788, the sixth state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 7,029,917.Open the full entry, the seventh child of Rose and Joseph P. KennedyJoseph P. KennedyJoseph P. Kennedy (1888–1969) was an American businessman and diplomat who served as the first chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 1934 to 1935, chairman of the United States Maritime Commission from 1937 to 1938 and U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1940.Open the full entry.⁠[1][2]

Because of the family’s frequent moves he attended at least 12 schools, including St. Paul’s, Portsmouth Priory and Milton Academy, from which he graduated.⁠[3]

From October 5, 1943, to May 30, 1946, he served in the U.S. Navy, enlisting as a Naval Reserve apprentice seaman and was later assigned as a seaman second class to the destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., which patrolled for submarines in the Caribbean.⁠[3]

He interrupted his studies at Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry for his naval service, returned after the war and received a B.A. in government in 1948; in 1951 he earned a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, ranking 56th in a class of 125.⁠[3][4]

In 1946 he managed three East Cambridge wards in John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy (1917–1963) was an American politician who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 to 1963. The youngest person elected president and the first Roman Catholic to hold the office, he was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963.Open the full entry’s first congressional campaign. In 1948 he covered the Arab-Israeli war and the Berlin airlift for the Boston Post, and in 1951 he covered the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference.⁠[3]

In 1951 he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar and joined the U.S. Department of Justice the same year, serving briefly as an attorney in the Internal Security Division and then in the Criminal Division until 1952.⁠[1][3]

In 1952 he left the Justice Department to manage the campaign of his brother, then-Congressman John F. Kennedy, for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, which John F. Kennedy won.⁠[1][2]

In 1953 he served as an assistant counsel to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy, resigning after about six months; after leaving on July 31, 1953, he spent about eight months as counsel to the Hoover Commission on Government Reorganization.⁠[2][3]

He returned to the subcommittee as chief counsel to the minority in 1954 and became chief counsel and staff director in 1955, serving under Chairman John McClellan. In 1956 he managed John F. Kennedy’s bid for the vice-presidential nomination at the Democratic convention in Chicago.⁠[1][3]

From 1957 to 1960 he was chief counsel of the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field, known as the “Rackets Committee,” where he investigated the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and its leader, Jimmy Hoffa.⁠[5][3]

In 1960 he resigned from the committee to manage John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign. That fall, after Martin Luther King Jr.Martin Luther King Jr.Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) was an American Baptist minister and social activist who led the U.S. civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. He headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.Open the full entry was arrested in Atlanta, he called a judge to help secure King’s release.⁠[6][7]

On January 21, 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed him the 64th Attorney General of the United States; he served until September 3, 1964.⁠[1]

BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768; the name also refers to its publisher, Chicago-based Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (which presents itself as The Britannica Group). The print edition ended in 2012, and the company’s main businesses since then have been the online encyclopedia Britannica.com, digital education products for schools and libraries, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries.Open the full entry’s summary notes that as attorney general he led a campaign against organized crime that led to Jimmy Hoffa’s conviction. The National Park Service describes him as President John F. Kennedy’s closest adviser and as playing a key role in several foreign-policy decisions.⁠[6][2]

During the Freedom Rides of May 1961 he sent 400 federal marshals to AlabamaAlabamaAlabama is a U.S. state in the Southeast on the Gulf of Mexico, with its capital at Montgomery. It was admitted to the Union on December 14, 1819, as the 22nd state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 5,024,279 residents.Open the full entry to protect the Freedom Riders; the Justice Department then petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce federal law, and by September the commission ruled in favor of the petition.⁠[8][7]

In the 1962 dispute over James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi, he and President John F. Kennedy held long telephone calls with Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett that failed to resolve it. In 1963 he sent Assistant Attorney General Burke Marshall to mediate in Birmingham, where an agreement was reached that May to desegregate lunch counters and other businesses.⁠[7][8]

On May 24, 1963, he met James Baldwin and other Black writers and activists in New York City; the National Park Service judges that the meeting shaped his views, after which he came to see congressional action as critical. His Justice Department brought five times as many voting-rights suits as the previous administration and helped Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) was an American politician who served Texas as a U.S. representative and senator and led the Senate Democrats, became vice president in 1961 and succeeded to the presidency on the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, serving as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. His administration enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other “Great Society” legislation while expanding the U.S. military commitment in the Vietnam War.Open the full entry push the Civil Rights Act of 1964, passed on July 2, 1964, through Congress.⁠[8][7]

During the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 he took part in meetings of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm), including the sessions at 10:00 a.m. on October 24 and 9:59 a.m. on October 26 on possible responses to the crisis and how it might be resolved.⁠[9]

After John F. Kennedy’s assassination he resigned as attorney general to run for the U.S. Senate from New York. On November 3, 1964, he was elected with 3,823,749 votes to Kenneth Keating’s 3,104,056, and he took his seat on January 3, 1965.⁠[3][1][2]

In the Senate he focused on poverty, racial minorities, Native Americans and young people and supported legislation to aid the poor. He criticized Lyndon B. Johnson’s Vietnam policy, called from 1966 for peace negotiations and troop withdrawal, and on March 2, 1967, called for a halt to U.S. bombing in Vietnam.⁠[2][5][6][3]

Beginning on November 10, 1965, he made a three-week tour of Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, and from June 1, 1966, he toured Africa, including South Africa. On May 15, 1967, he took part in a debate with Ronald ReaganRonald ReaganRonald Reagan (1911–2004) was an American politician and actor who worked as a radio sports announcer and film actor before serving as governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989.Open the full entry.⁠[3]

On March 16, 1968, he announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in the Caucus Room of the Old Senate Office Building; on March 18 he gave his “Gross National Product” speech at the University of Kansas. He went on to win the IndianaIndianaIndiana is a state in the Midwestern United States; its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. It was admitted to the Union on December 11, 1816, as the 19th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 6,785,528.Open the full entry and NebraskaNebraskaNebraska is a state of the United States bordered by South Dakota to the north, Iowa and Missouri to the east, Kansas to the south, and Colorado to the southwest, with its panhandle bordering Wyoming to the west; its capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha. It was admitted to the Union on March 1, 1867, as the 37th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 1,961,504.Open the full entry primaries.⁠[3][2]

On April 4, 1968, the night Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in Memphis, TennesseeTennesseeTennessee is a U.S. state in the southeast-central United States, with its capital at Nashville. It was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 6,910,840 residents.Open the full entry, he spoke impromptu to a large, mostly African American crowd in Indianapolis, announcing the news, urging a response of “understanding and prayer” and warning against division, hatred and violence. The Indiana state historical marker credits the speech with keeping Indianapolis calm while violence broke out in other cities.⁠[10][11]

Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, after delivering his statement on winning the California Democratic primary, he was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan. He died at 1:44 a.m. Pacific Time on June 6, 1968, at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, at the age of 42.⁠[3][6][2]

On June 8, 1968, a requiem mass was held for him at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, after which his body was taken by train to Washington, D.C. The train reached Union Station at 9:10 p.m., the motorcade stopped first at the Lincoln Memorial and arrived at Arlington National Cemetery at 10:30 p.m.; under floodlights, Terence Cardinal Cooke, Archbishop of New York, led a brief graveside service, and service members handed out 1,500 candles to mourners.⁠[12][3]

His 13 pallbearers included John GlennJohn GlennJohn Glenn (1921–2016) was an American astronaut, Marine Corps aviator and politician. In 1962, flying Friendship 7, he became the first American to orbit the Earth, and he served as a U.S. senator from Ohio from 1975 to 1999.Open the full entry, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamaraRobert McNamaraRobert McNamara (Robert Strange McNamara, 1916–2009) was an American business executive and government official who was president of the Ford Motor Company, served as U.S. secretary of defense under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, and was president of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981.Open the full entry, General Maxwell Taylor and Senator Ted KennedyTed KennedyTed Kennedy (Edward M. Kennedy, 1932–2009) was an American politician and Democrat who served as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts from 1962 to 2009, leading or helping to pass legislation on civil rights, immigration, health care, education and disability rights.Open the full entry. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared June 9 a national day of mourning.⁠[12][3]

His grave is in Section 45 of Arlington National Cemetery, next to that of John F. Kennedy. At the family’s request, an expanded gravesite designed by the architect I.M. Pei was completed in 1971; it kept the original simple white cross, added a granite plaza and bears inscriptions from his speech in South Africa on June 6, 1966, and from his 1968 campaign.⁠[12]

His brothers included John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, and his sisters included Rosemary Kennedy and Eunice Kennedy Shriver.⁠[4]

On June 17, 1950, he married Ethel Skakel (born April 11, 1928) at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Greenwich, ConnecticutConnecticutConnecticut is a U.S. state in the New England region. Its capital is Hartford and its largest city is Bridgeport (2010 census). It entered the Union on January 9, 1788, as the 5th state, and had a population of 3,605,944 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry, with John F. Kennedy as best man. They had 11 children, among them Robert F. Kennedy Jr.⁠[2][3][4]Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (born 1954) is an American environmental lawyer, activist and author who co-founded the Waterkeeper Alliance and has been the 26th U.S. secretary of health and human services since 2025.Open the full entry

On November 20, 2001, which would have been his 76th birthday, President George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge W. Bush (born 1946) is an American politician and Republican who worked in the energy business and was a part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team before becoming the 46th governor of Texas in 1995 and serving as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009.Open the full entry issued a presidential memorandum directing that the Main Justice Building at 950 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. in Washington, D.C., be designated the “Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building”; the event took place in the department’s Great Hall with Attorney General John Ashcroft and others. Construction of the building had begun in 1931.⁠[13][14]

In 2005 the Indiana Historical Bureau and the City of Indianapolis erected a historical marker in the city’s Near Northside commemorating his remarks of April 4, 1968.⁠[10]

U.S. Department of Justice: Official website: https://www.justice.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum: Official website: https://www.jfklibrary.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[3]

Arlington National Cemetery: Official website: https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/ (opens in a new window).⁠[12]