Robert Francis Kennedy, was born on November 20, 1925 into a wealthy political family in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was the seventh of nine children born to Rose(née Fitzgerald), a philanthropist and Joseph Kennedy, who had served as ambassador to Great Britain between 1938 and 1940. Joseph Kennedy focussed most of his attention on Robert’s older brothers, Joseph Jr. and John, grooming them for a life in politics, and leaving Robert much on his own.
The Kennedy family had multiple residences and moved around as Joseph’s career moved him to different locations. Consequently, Robert was continually adjusting to new schools and struggling to make new friends. His early life was somewhat solitary, and one of his teachers commented that Robert had trouble completing his work–a factor that required him to repeat Grade 3. In September 1939, Robert began 8th grade at St. Paul’s, an elite preparatory school for boys, located in Concord, New, Hampshire. Two months later, he was withdrawn from St. Paul’s and enrolled in a Benedictine Catholic boarding school for boys, located in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. At the end of the 10th grade, Kennedy left that school where a teacher described him as a “poor-to-mediocre student, except for history.” In September 1942, he enrolled at the Milton Academy boarding school where he completed Grades 11 and 12 in preparation for entry into Harvard.
In October 1943, Robert Kennedy enlisted as a seaman apprentice in the United States Naval Reserve and in March 1944 he entered the V-12 Navy College Training Program at Harvard. In June 1945, he received a specialized V-12 degree that enabled him to enter Harvard as a junior in September 1946. He graduated in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in political science.
In September 1948 Kennedy enrolled at the University of Virginia School of Law where he became active in the school life and began to develop the social skills that would serve him later in his career. On June 17, 1950, he married Ethel Skakel, whom he had met 5 years earlier during a skiing excursion to Mont Tremblant Resort in Quebec. A year later, he graduated with his law degree, finishing 56th in a class of 125 and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar.
In the fall of that year, Robert Kennedy, serving as a correspondent for the Boston Post, traveled widely to cover a variety of news stories including the Treaty of Peace with Japan and a seven-week trip to Asia with his brother John. It was during this trip with older brother John, that the two Kennedy boys bonded. The mutual trust that evolved during this period would serve them well a decade later.
In November 1951, Robert and Ethel Kennedy moved to the Georgetown section of Washington D.C. where he began serving as a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice. However, he resigned from this post the following June to manage John Kennedy’s campaign in Massachusetts for the U.S. Senate seat. John Kennedy’s victory over the incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. brought him international recognition and positioned him for a future presidential run. The victory also served to strengthen the bond between the two brothers as Robert was gradually becoming John’s closest advisor.
From 1957 to 1959, Robert Kennedy, in his role as the chief counsel to the U.S. Senate’s McClellan Committee, challenged Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa who was allegedly involved with mobsters in extorting money from employers. Kennedy left the McClellan Committee in September 1959 in order to manage his brother’s campaign for the presidency of the United States. In the wake of his departure from the Committee, he published a book, The Enemy Within, describing the criminal activities of the Teamsters and other labor unions. Although the Democratic Party was traditionally viewed as a supporter of the labor movement, Kennedy’s opposition to Hoffa earned him a reputation as a person of integrity and moral courage. Throughout 1960, Robert managed John’s campaign and traveled across America giving speeches on his brother’s behalf. Shortly after JFK was elected President, he appointed Robert as U.S. Attorney General.
In the summer of 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev decided to test the mettle of the young President of the United States by moving Soviet troops and missiles with nuclear warheads into Cuba, 80 miles off the US coast. When JFK learned of this threat to America, he issued a blockade that rapidly escalated to the brink of a nuclear confrontation. During a tense period, known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, Robert F. Kennedy became involved in a series of secret negotiations with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin that led to the final agreement that defused a nuclear game of chicken.
After the assassination of JFK in November 1963, Robert Kennedy continued his career in politics. In 1964, he was elected as a U.S. Senator from New York and quickly became known for his passionate advocacy for marginalized communities, including African Americans and the impoverished. His commitment to civil rights and his ability to connect with people from all walks of life earned him widespread admiration. He also campaigned against organized crime and was a vocal critic of the Vietnam War. In 1968, he announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, running on a platform that emphasized social justice, economic opportunity, and civil rights.
Tragically, on June 5, 1968, just moments after winning the California primary in his bid for the presidency, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, leaving behind, his wife Ethel and their eleven children. His death shocked the nation, yet his legacy as a passionate advocate for justice and equality continues to resonate. Robert Kennedy was buried close to his brother John in Arlington National Cemetery. Robert F. Kennedy once reflected:
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.
