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    LIFE Robert. F. Kennedy (BAZ Billing): An American Legacy, 50 Years Later
    LIFE Robert. F. Kennedy (BAZ Billing): An American Legacy, 50 Years Later
    LIFE Robert. F. Kennedy (BAZ Billing): An American Legacy, 50 Years Later
    Ebook139 pages1 hour

    LIFE Robert. F. Kennedy (BAZ Billing): An American Legacy, 50 Years Later

    By The Editors of LIFE

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    About this ebook

    Fifty years after Robert Francis Kennedy's assassination, celebrate his legacy with this special edition LIFE Robert F. Kennedy.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLife
    Release dateMay 25, 2018
    ISBN9781547843039
    LIFE Robert. F. Kennedy (BAZ Billing): An American Legacy, 50 Years Later

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      Book preview

      LIFE Robert. F. Kennedy (BAZ Billing) - The Editors of LIFE

      ROBERT F. KENNEDY

      An American Legacy

      50 YEARS LATER

      BOB HENRIQUES/MAGNUM

      SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY in his New York City apartment in 1966.

      CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      The Reluctant Kennedy

      GALLERY

      A Lasting Legacy

      CHAPTER ONE

      The Younger Brother

      CHAPTER TWO

      The Man Behind the Curtain

      FAMILY GALLERY

      At Home at Hickory Hill

      CHAPTER THREE

      A Force for Good

      CHAPTER FOUR

      Into the Light

      CHAPTER FIVE

      A Race of His Own

      AFTERWORD

      How He Has Lived On

      INTRODUCTION

      THE RELUCTANT KENNEDY

      By Daniel S. Levy

      PAUL SCHUTZER/LIFE/THE PICTURE COLLECTION

      ROBERT AND ETHEL KENNEDY in 1957 at Hickory Hill, the McLean, Virginia, home they bought from John and Jacqueline Kennedy.

      Robert F. Kennedy was an anomaly when he ran for President in 1968. Americans of a half century ago, like their descendants today, yearned for someone who could tackle all that bedeviled the land—a litany of problems that, back then, ranged from a war without end and riots that scorched cities to the festering wounds of racial and social divisions. And back then there was no candidate like Bobby Kennedy. Eugene McCarthy might have caught the attention of America’s youth, but he sported a cold intellectualism. Hubert Humphrey wore a perpetually cheerful demeanor. Richard Nixon cloaked himself in harshness. And George Wallace, well, he fervently embraced bigotry.

      Only Bobby Kennedy exuded a transcendent sense of hope. As a result, Americans loved Bobby and mobbed him everywhere he went. Maybe it was because he was the grieving brother of the martyred President, with a sorrow that never seemed to lift and a pain the public understood. Or maybe it was because he represented the better angels of our nature, a kindred spirit who stood for a kinder present and a sweeter future.

      That unusual hope was the product of the man’s unusual background. As a child, Kennedy had been surrounded by luxury but destined to work to survive. Whether in London or Palm Beach, he seemed content to live in the shadow of his brothers and sisters, appeasing his father at home and then prospering by finding ways to promote his brother John in the wider world. These experiences behind the scenes of power made him painfully pragmatic if not always graceful. But he didn’t need subtlety to make a difference. And that goal—to make a difference—was why he brought a seemingly holy passion to his work as attorney general and senator. Kennedy sought change not only because he saw it as the correct thing to do, but because it proved to be the hard and necessary thing to do in order to create a more perfect union. It was that elusive sensibility he loved to articulate at the end of his stump speeches: Some men see things as they are and ask, ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were and ask, ‘Why not?’

      Theodore H. White, who had created the Camelot legend of JFK’s presidency after John’s assassination in Dallas in November 1963, wrote in LIFE of Bobby’s essential quality after his death in Los Angeles in June 1968: Robert F. Kennedy wore his heart open at all times, and though strangers hated him with a venom almost irrational, it was what this impetuous heart dictated that they feared. All those who knew him best knew its kindness and courage, gallantry and tenderness. Its outer shell was the armor and lance he bore in public; and the style others hated was that of a man who jousted for the things he loved and never wavered in his faith.

      Now 50 years after Robert Kennedy’s death, it is his belief in America and his devotion to a better future for all that stays with us, and might even sustain us.

      GALLERY

      A LASTING LEGACY

      At work and at play, Bobby Kennedy left the nation and the world with something worth remembering

      PHOTO © JACQUES LOWE, COURTESY JACQUES LOWE ESTATE, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

      DEVOTED

      Robert Kennedy believed that his job as attorney general gave him an activist bully pulpit from which he could fight discrimination, crime, and other problems troubling the nation.

      PAUL SCHUTZER/LIFE/THE PICTURE COLLECTION

      A FAMILY AT PLAY

      Being a Kennedy meant immediate drafting into the family’s touch-football league. In 1957, as a group of Kennedy rookies watched and learned from the sidelines at Hickory Hill, wide receiver Bobby went long to catch a ball lofted by quarterback John.

      STEVE SCHAPIRO/CORBIS/GETTY

      CELEBRATING THE HOLIDAYS

      Heading a large household, Robert and Ethel had busy days and an often chaotic home, as on this Christmas

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