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| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary Ray E. Boomhower, 2008-02-11 On April 4, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., arrived in Indiana to campaign for the Indiana Democratic presidential primary. As Kennedy prepared to fly from an appearance in Muncie to Indianapolis, he learned that civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had been shot outside his hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. Before his plane landed in Indianapolis, Kennedy heard the news that King had died. Despite warnings from Indianapolis police that they could not guarantee his safety, and brushing off concerns from his own staff, Kennedy decided to proceed with plans to address an outdoor rally to be held in the heart of the city's African American community. On that cold and windy evening, Kennedy broke the news of King's death in an impassioned, extemporaneous speech on the need for compassion in the face of violence. It has proven to be one of the great speeches in American political history. Marking the 40th anniversary of Kennedy's Indianapolis speech, this book explains what brought the politician to Indiana that day, and explores the characters and events of the 1968 Indiana Democratic presidential primary in which Kennedy, who was an underdog, had a decisive victory. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: The Promise and the Dream David Margolick, 2018-04-03 No issue in America in the 1960s was more vital than civil rights, and no two public figures were more crucial in the drama of race relations in this era than Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. Fifty years after they were both murdered, noted journalist David Margolick explores the untold story of the complex and ever-evolving relationship between these two American icons. Assassinated only sixty-two days apart in 1968, King and Kennedy changed the United States forever, and their deaths profoundly altered the country's trajectory.In The Promise and the Dream, Margolick examines their unique bond and the complicated mix of mutual assistance, impatience, wariness, awkwardness, antagonism, and admiration that existed between the two, documented with original interviews, oral histories, FBI files, and previously untapped contemporaneous accounts.At a turning point in social history, MLK and RFK embarked on distinct but converging paths toward lasting change. Even when they weren't interacting directly, they monitored and learned from, one another. Their joint story, a story each man took some pains to hide and which began to come into focus only with their murders, is not just gripping history but a window into contemporary America and the challenges we continue to face.Complemented by award-winning historian Douglas Brinkley's foreword and more than eighty revealing photos by the foremost photojournalists of the period, The Promise and the Dream offers a compelling look at one of the most consequential but misunderstood relationships in our nation's history. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: What Truth Sounds Like Michael Eric Dyson, 2018-06-05 Named a 2018 Notable Work of Nonfiction by The Washington Post NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Winner, The 2018 Southern Book Prize NAMED A BEST/MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2018 BY: Chicago Tribune • Time • Publisher's Weekly A stunning follow up to New York Times bestseller Tears We Cannot Stop The Washington Post: Passionately written. Chris Matthews, MSNBC: A beautifully written book. Shaun King: “I kid you not–I think it’s the most important book I’ve read all year...” Harry Belafonte: “Dyson has finally written the book I always wanted to read...a tour de force.” Joy-Ann Reid: A work of searing prose and seminal brilliance... Dyson takes that once in a lifetime conversation between black excellence and pain and the white heroic narrative, and drives it right into the heart of our current politics and culture, leaving the reader reeling and reckoning. Robin D. G. Kelley: “Dyson masterfully refracts our present racial conflagration... he reminds us that Black artists and intellectuals bear an awesome responsibility to speak truth to power. President Barack Obama: Everybody who speaks after Michael Eric Dyson pales in comparison.” In 2015 BLM activist Julius Jones confronted Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with an urgent query: “What in your heart has changed that’s going to change the direction of this country?” “I don’t believe you just change hearts,” she protested. “I believe you change laws.” The fraught conflict between conscience and politics – between morality and power – in addressing race hardly began with Clinton. An electrifying and traumatic encounter in the sixties crystallized these furious disputes. In 1963 Attorney General Robert Kennedy sought out James Baldwin to explain the rage that threatened to engulf black America. Baldwin brought along some friends, including playwright Lorraine Hansberry, psychologist Kenneth Clark, and a valiant activist, Jerome Smith. It was Smith’s relentless, unfiltered fury that set Kennedy on his heels, reducing him to sullen silence. Kennedy walked away from the nearly three-hour meeting angry – that the black folk assembled didn’t understand politics, and that they weren’t as easy to talk to as Martin Luther King. But especially that they were more interested in witness than policy. But Kennedy’s anger quickly gave way to empathy, especially for Smith. “I guess if I were in his shoes...I might feel differently about this country.” Kennedy set about changing policy – the meeting having transformed his thinking in fundamental ways. There was more: every big argument about race that persists to this day got a hearing in that room. Smith declaring that he’d never fight for his country given its racist tendencies, and Kennedy being appalled at such lack of patriotism, tracks the disdain for black dissent in our own time. His belief that black folk were ungrateful for the Kennedys’ efforts to make things better shows up in our day as the charge that black folk wallow in the politics of ingratitude and victimhood. The contributions of black queer folk to racial progress still cause a stir. BLM has been accused of harboring a covert queer agenda. The immigrant experience, like that of Kennedy – versus the racial experience of Baldwin – is a cudgel to excoriate black folk for lacking hustle and ingenuity. The questioning of whether folk who are interracially partnered can authentically communicate black interests persists. And we grapple still with the responsibility of black intellectuals and artists to bring about social change. What Truth Sounds Like exists at the tense intersection of the conflict between politics and prophecy – of whether we embrace political resolution or moral redemption to fix our fractured racial landscape. The future of race and democracy hang in the balance. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Make Gentle the Life of this World Robert F. Kennedy, 1999 Robert F. Kennedy's youngest son has culled the highlights of Roberts journal, along with moving portions of his most memorable speeches, to create an inspiring, immortal voice for his father's vision. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: The Last Campaign Thurston Clarke, 2008-05-27 Tells the story of Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 Presidential campaign. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Lie Too Big to Fail Lisa Pease, 2025-04 A thorough and groundbreaking addition to our understanding of the RFK assassination based on newly released police reports and government documents. In A Lie Too Big to Fail, longtime Kennedy researcher (of both JFK and RFK) Lisa Pease lays out, in meticulous detail, how witnesses with evidence of conspiracy were silenced by the Los Angeles Police Department; how evidence was deliberately altered and, in some instances, destroyed; and how the justice system and the media failed to present the truth of the case to the public. Pease reveals how the trial was essentially a sham, and how the prosecution did not dare to follow where the evidence led. A Lie Too Big to Fail asserts the idea that a government can never investigate itself in a crime of this magnitude. Was the convicted Sirhan Sirhan a willing participant? Or was he a mind-controlled assassin? It has fallen to independent researchers like Pease to lay out the evidence in a clear and concise manner, allowing readers to form their theories about this event. Pease places the history of this event in the context of the era and provides shocking overlaps between other high-profile murders and attempted murders of the time. Lisa Pease goes further than anyone else in proving who likely planned the assassination, who the assassination team members were, and why Kennedy was deemed such a threat that he had to be taken out before he became President of the United States. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade Jeff Shesol, 1998-10-17 Mutual Contempt is at once a fascinating study in character and an illuminating meditation on the role character can play in shaping history.—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy loathed each other. Their antagonism, propelled by clashing personalities, contrasting views, and a deep, abiding animosity, would drive them to a bitterness so deep that even civil conversation was often impossible. Played out against the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s, theirs was a monumental political battle that would shape federal policy, fracture the Democratic party, and have a lasting effect on the politics of our times. Drawing on previously unexamined recordings and documents, as well as memoirs, biographies, and scores of personal interviews, Jeff Shesol weaves the threads of this epic story into a compelling narrative that reflects the impact of LBJ and RFK's tumultuous relationship on politics, civil rights, the war on poverty, and the war in Vietnam. As Publishers Weekly noted, This is indispensable reading for both experts on the period and newcomers to the history of that decade. An exhaustive and fascinating history. . . . Shesol's grasp of the era's history is sure, his tale often entertaining, and his research awesome.—Russell Baker, New York Review of Books Thorough, provocative. . . . The story assumes the dimensions of a great drama played out on a stage too vast to comprehend.—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post (1997 Critic's Choice) This is the most gripping political book of recent years.—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Landmark Speeches on the Vietnam War Gregory Allen Olson, 2010 The fourteen key speeches collected in this volume trace both the evolution of U.S. policy and its contestation. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign Michael K. Honey, 2011-02-07 The definitive history of the epic struggle for economic justice that became Martin Luther King Jr.'s last crusade. Memphis in 1968 was ruled by a paternalistic plantation mentality embodied in its good-old-boy mayor, Henry Loeb. Wretched conditions, abusive white supervisors, poor education, and low wages locked most black workers into poverty. Then two sanitation workers were chewed up like garbage in the back of a faulty truck, igniting a public employee strike that brought to a boil long-simmering issues of racial injustice. With novelistic drama and rich scholarly detail, Michael Honey brings to life the magnetic characters who clashed on the Memphis battlefield: stalwart black workers; fiery black ministers; volatile, young, black-power advocates; idealistic organizers and tough-talking unionists; the first black members of the Memphis city council; the white upper crust who sought to prevent change or conflagration; and, finally, the magisterial Martin Luther King Jr., undertaking a Poor People's Campaign at the crossroads of his life, vilified as a subversive, hounded by the FBI, and seeing in the working poor of Memphis his hopes for a better America. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Bobby Kennedy Chris Matthews, 2017-10-31 In Chris Matthews’s New York Times bestselling portrait of Robert F. Kennedy, “Readers witness the evolution of Kennedy’s soul. Through tragedy after tragedy we find the man humanized” (Associated Press). With his bestselling biography Jack Kennedy, Chris Matthews profiled of one of America’s most beloved Presidents and the patriotic spirit that defined him. Now, with Bobby Kennedy, Matthews provides “insight into [Bobby’s] spirit and what drove him to greatness” (New York Journal of Books) in his gripping, in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at one of the great figures of the American twentieth century. Overlooked by his father, and overshadowed by his war-hero brother, Bobby Kennedy was a perpetual underdog. When he had the chance to become a naval officer like his older brother, Bobby turned it down, choosing instead to join the Navy as a common sailor. It was a life-changing experience that led him to connect with voters from all walks of life: young and old, black and white, rich and poor. They were the people who turned out for him in his 1968 campaign. RFK would prove himself to be the rarest of politicians—both a pragmatist who knew how to get the job done and an unwavering idealist who could inspire millions. Drawing on extensive research and interviews, Matthews pulls back the curtain on the private world of Robert Francis Kennedy. Matthew illuminates the important moments of his life: from his early years and his start in politics, to his crucial role as attorney general in his brother’s administration and, finally, his tragic run for president. This definitive book brings Bobby Kennedy to life like never before. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Martin Luther King, the Inconvenient Hero Vincent Harding, 2008-01-01 In these eloquent essays, the noted scholar and activist Vincent Harding reflects on the forgotten legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the meaning of his life today. Many of these reflections are inspired by the ambiguous message surrounding the official celebration of King's birthday. Harding sees a tendency to freeze an image of King from the period of his early leadership of the Civil Rights movement, the period culminating with his famous I Have a Dream Speech. Harding writes passionately of King's later years, when his message and witness became more radical and challenging to the status quo at every level. In those final years before his assassination King took up the struggle against racism in the urban ghettos of the North; he became an eloquent critic of the Vietnam war; he laid the foundations for the Poor People's Campaign. This widening of his message and his tactics entailed controversy even within his own movement. But they point to a consistent expansion of his critique of American injustice and his solidarity with the oppressed. It was this spirit that brought him to Memphis in 1968 to lend his support to striking sanitation workers. It was there that he paid the final price for his prophetic witness. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Delta Epiphany Ellen B. Meacham, 2018-04-02 In April 1967, a year before his run for president, Senator Robert F. Kennedy knelt in a crumbling shack in Mississippi trying to coax a response from a listless child. The toddler sat picking at dried rice and beans spilled over the dirt floor as Kennedy, former US attorney general and brother to a president, touched the boy's distended stomach and stroked his face and hair. After several minutes with little response, the senator walked out the back door, wiping away tears. In Delta Epiphany: Robert F. Kennedy in Mississippi, Ellen B. Meacham tells the story of Kennedy's visit to the Delta, while also examining the forces of history, economics, and politics that shaped the lives of the children he met in Mississippi in 1967 and the decades that followed. The book includes thirty-seven powerful photographs, a dozen published here for the first time. Kennedy's visit to the Mississippi Delta as part of a Senate subcommittee investigation of poverty programs lasted only a few hours, but Kennedy, the people he encountered, Mississippi, and the nation felt the impact of that journey for much longer. His visit and its aftermath crystallized many of the domestic issues that later moved Kennedy toward his candidacy for the presidency. Upon his return to Washington, Kennedy immediately began seeking ways to help the children he met on his visit; however, his efforts were frustrated by institutional obstacles and blocked by powerful men who were indifferent and, at times, hostile to the plight of poor black children. Sadly, we know what happened to Kennedy, but this book also introduces us to three of the children he met on his visit, including the baby on the floor, and finishes their stories. Kennedy talked about what he had seen in Mississippi for the remaining fourteen months of his life. His vision for America was shaped by the plight of the hungry children he encountered there. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. David J. Garrow, 2015-02-17 The author of Bearing the Cross, the Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Martin Luther King Jr., exposes the government’s massive surveillance campaign against the civil rights leader When US attorney general Robert F. Kennedy authorized a wiretap of Martin Luther King Jr.’s phones by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he set in motion one of the most invasive surveillance operations in American history. Sparked by informant reports of King’s alleged involvement with communists, the FBI amassed a trove of information on the civil rights leader. Their findings failed to turn up any evidence of communist influence, but they did expose sensitive aspects of King’s personal life that the FBI went on to use in its attempts to mar his public image. Based on meticulous research into the agency’s surveillance records, historian David Garrow illustrates how the FBI followed King’s movements throughout the country, bugging his hotel rooms and tapping his phones wherever he went, in an obsessive quest to destroy his growing influence. Garrow uncovers the voyeurism and racism within J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI while unmasking Hoover’s personal desire to destroy King. The spying only intensified once King publicly denounced the Vietnam War, and the FBI continued to surveil him until his death. The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. clearly demonstrates an unprecedented abuse of power by the FBI and the government as a whole. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Profiles in Courage John F. Kennedy, 2006-04-11 Written in 1955 by the then junior senator from the state of Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage served as a clarion call to every American. The inspiring true accounts of eight unsung heroic acts by American patriots at different junctures in our nation's history, Kennedy's book became required reading, an instant classic, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Now, a half-century later, it remains a moving, powerful, and relevant testament to the indomitable national spirit and an unparalleled celebration of that most noble of human virtues. This special P.S. edition of Profiles in Courage commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the book's publication. Included in this new edition, along with vintage photographs and an extensive author biography, are Kennedy's correspondence about the writing project, contemporary reviews of the book, a letter from Ernest Hemingway, and two rousing speeches from recipients of the Profile in Courage Award. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: The Negro Motorist Green Book Victor H. Green, The Negro Motorist Green Book was a groundbreaking guide that provided African American travelers with crucial information on safe places to stay, eat, and visit during the era of segregation in the United States. This essential resource, originally published from 1936 to 1966, offered a lifeline to black motorists navigating a deeply divided nation, helping them avoid the dangers and indignities of racism on the road. More than just a travel guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book stands as a powerful symbol of resilience and resistance in the face of oppression, offering a poignant glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of the African American experience in the 20th century. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: American Maelstrom Michael A. Cohen, 2016-04-21 In his presidential inaugural address of January 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson offered an uplifting vision for America, one that would end poverty and racial injustice. Elected in a landslide over the conservative Republican Barry Goldwater and bolstered by the so-called liberal consensus, economic prosperity, and a strong wave of nostalgia for his martyred predecessor, John F. Kennedy, Johnson announced the most ambitious government agenda in decades. Three years later, everything had changed. Johnson's approval ratings had plummeted; the liberal consensus was shattered; the war in Vietnam splintered the nation; and the politics of civil rights had created a fierce white backlash. A report from the National Committee for an Effective Congress warned of a national nervous breakdown. The election of 1968 was immediately caught up in a swirl of powerful forces, and the nine men who sought the nation's highest office that year attempted to ride them to victory-or merely survive them. On the Democratic side, Eugene McCarthy energized the anti-war movement; George Wallace spoke to the working-class white backlash; Robert Kennedy took on the mantle of his slain brother. Entangled in Vietnam, Johnson, stunningly, opted not to run again, scrambling the odds. On the Republican side, 1968 saw the vindication of Richard Nixon, who outhustled Nelson Rockefeller, Ronald Reagan, and George Romney by navigating between the conservative and moderate wings of the Republican Party. The assassinations of the first Martin Luther King, Jr., and then Kennedy, seemed to push the country to the brink of chaos, a chaos reflected in the Democratic Convention in Chicago, a televised horror show. Vice President Hubert Humphrey emerged as the nominee, and, finally liberating himself from Johnson's grip, nearly overcame the lead long enjoyed by Nixon, who, by exploiting division and channeling the national yearning for order, would be the last man standing. In American Maelstrom, Michael A. Cohen captures the full drama of this watershed election, establishing 1968 as the hinge between the decline of political liberalism, the ascendancy of conservative populism, and the rise of anti-governmental attitudes that continue to dominate the nation's political discourse. In this sweeping and immersive book, equal parts compelling analysis and thrilling narrative, Cohen takes us to the very source of our modern politics of division. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: RFK Funeral Train Paul Fusco, Norman Mailer, Evan Thomas, 2000 Snapshot of America at a crucial moment of transition. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: JFK Fredrik Logevall, 2021-09-07 A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian takes us as close as we have ever been to the real John F. Kennedy in this revelatory biography of the iconic, yet still elusive, thirty-fifth president. “An utterly incandescent study of one of the most consequential figures of the twentieth century.”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States WINNER OF THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE • NAMED BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR BY The Times (London) ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Sunday Times (London), New Statesman, The Daily Telegraph, Kirkus Reviews By the time of his assassination in 1963, John F. Kennedy stood at the helm of the greatest power the world had ever seen, a booming American nation that he had steered through some of the most perilous diplomatic standoffs of the Cold War. Born in 1917 to a striving Irish American family that had become among Boston’s wealthiest, Kennedy knew political ambition from an early age, and his meteoric rise to become the youngest elected president cemented his status as one of the most mythologized figures in American history. And while hagiographic portrayals of his dazzling charisma, reports of his extramarital affairs, and disagreements over his political legacy have come and gone in the decades since his untimely death, these accounts all fail to capture the full person. Beckoned by this gap in our historical knowledge, Fredrik Logevall has spent much of the last decade searching for the “real” JFK. The result of this prodigious effort is a sweeping two-volume biography that properly contextualizes Kennedy amidst the roiling American Century. This volume spans the first thirty-nine years of JFK’s life—from birth through his decision to run for president—to reveal his early relationships, his formative experiences during World War II, his ideas, his writings, his political aspirations. In examining these pre–White House years, Logevall shows us a more serious, independently minded Kennedy than we’ve previously known, whose distinct international sensibility would prepare him to enter national politics at a critical moment in modern U.S. history. Along the way, Logevall tells the parallel story of America’s midcentury rise. As Kennedy comes of age, we see the charged debate between isolationists and interventionists in the years before Pearl Harbor; the tumult of the Second World War, through which the United States emerged as a global colossus; the outbreak and spread of the Cold War; the domestic politics of anti-Communism and the attendant scourge of McCarthyism; the growth of television’s influence on politics; and more. JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917–1956 is a sweeping history of the United States in the middle decades of the twentieth century, as well as the clearest portrait we have of this enigmatic American icon. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: A Call to Conscience Martin Luther King, Jr, Martin Luther King (Jr, 2001-01-01 Collects the most powerful and inspirational speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., and includes commentary and contributions from Andrew Young, George McGovern, Rosa Parks, Aretha Franklin, Edward Kennedy, and the Dalai Lama. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Broken Glory Ed Sanders, 2018-05-15 Bobby Kennedy's last campaign—an homage to a leader who might have changed history and a reconstruction of the conspiracy to stop him, in a magisterial feat of epic investigative poetry. June 5, 2018, is the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and there are still unanswered questions about whether his murder was the result of a conspiracy. Broken Glory is a graphic history told in epic verse of Bobby Kennedy's life and times leading up to the fateful 1968 election campaign, with 100 illustrations by artist Rick Veitch. It encompasses the story of his convicted killer, Sirhan Sirhan, as well as a large cast of characters that includes Lyndon Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Nixon, and Eugene McCarthy, who was the first to challenge the sitting president of his own party in the 1968 election, and it recalls the major events that made 1968 a turning point in American history: the Tet offensive and battle of Hue, followed soon after by the My Lai massacre, the assassination of Martin Luther King, and the riots that ensued. The authors illuminate the evidence for a conspiracy, fostered perhaps by elements of the CIA, that fielded a second shooter and made of Sirhan Sirhan a patsy, mirroring the part played by Lee Harvey Oswald in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, an event that haunted JFK’s younger brother until his dying day. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Politics Lost Joe Klein, 2006-04-18 People on the right are furious. People on the left are livid. And the center isn’t holding. There is only one thing on which almost everyone agrees: there is something very wrong in Washington. The country is being run by pollsters. Few politicians are able to win the voters’ trust. Blame abounds and personal responsibility is nowhere to be found. There is a cynicism in Washington that appalls those in every state, red or blue. The question is: Why? The more urgent question is: What can be done about it? Few people are more qualified to deal with both questions than Joe Klein. There are many loud and opinionated voices on the political scene, but no one sees or writes with the clarity that this respected observer brings to the table. He has spent a lifetime enmeshed in politics, studying its nuances, its quirks, and its decline. He is as angry and fed up as the rest of us, so he has decided to do something about it—in these pages, he vents, reconstructs, deconstructs, and reveals how and why our leaders are less interested in leading than they are in the “permanent campaign” that political life has become. The book opens with a stirring anecdote from the night of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Klein re-creates the scene of Robert Kennedy’s appearance in a black neighborhood in Indianapolis, where he gave a gut-wrenching, poetic speech that showed respect for the audience, imparted dignity to all who listened, and quelled a potential riot. Appearing against the wishes of his security team, it was one of the last truly courageous and spontaneous acts by an American politician—and it is no accident that Klein connects courage to spontaneity. From there, Klein begins his analysis—campaign by campaign—of how things went wrong. From the McGovern campaign polling techniques to Roger Ailes’s combative strategy for Nixon; from Reagan’s reinvention of the Republican Party to Lee Atwater’s equally brilliant reinvention of behind-the-scenes strategizing; from Jimmy Carter to George H. W. Bush to Bill Clinton to George W.—as well as inside looks at the losing sides—we see how the Democrats become diffuse and frightened, how the system becomes unbalanced, and how politics becomes less and less about ideology and more and more about how to gain and keep power. By the end of one of the most dismal political runs in history—Kerry’s 2004 campaign for president—we understand how such traits as courage, spontaneity, and leadership have disappeared from our political landscape. In a fascinating final chapter, the author refuses to give easy answers since the push for easy answers has long been part of the problem. But he does give thoughtful solutions that just may get us out of this mess—especially if any of the 2008 candidates happen to be paying attention. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Destiny Betrayed James DiEugenio, 1992 A comprehensive study of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's relentless and controversial investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy and his prosecution of Clay Shaw, the only person ever indicted for the murder of JFK. Destiny Betrayed incorporates new research and documentation never before revealed in print. Illustrated. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: The Last American Hero Alice L. George, 2020-11-10 On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became a national star. That morning at Cape Canaveral, a small-town boy from Ohio took his place atop a rocket and soared into orbit to score a victory in the heavily contested Cold War. The television images were blurry black-and-white phantoms. The cameras shook as the rocket moved, but by the end of the day, one thing was clear: a new hero rode that rocket and became the center of the world's attention for the four hours and fifty-five minutes of his flight. From that day forward, Glenn restively wore the hero label. Refusing to let that dramatic day define his life, he went on to become a four-term US senator and returned to space at the age of seventy-seven. He was a creation of the media, in some ways, but he was also a product of the Cold War. At a time when increasingly cynical Americans need heroes, his aura burns brightly in American memory. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: RFK and MLK Philip A. Goduti, Jr., 2017-06-23 Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., lived parallel lives. Their leadership helped millions of Americans recover from the assassination of John F. Kennedy and inspired hope for a more peaceful and egalitarian society (which endured well after their own tragic deaths five years later). Their rhetoric addressed the pervasive issues of the era--poverty, war and civil rights--and encouraged young people and the disadvantaged throughout the United States and the world. This book examines the vision they shared through their speeches, writings and public appearances in the years of the cultural groundshift of 1963 through 1968. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: The Heavens are Hung in Black James Still, 2012 Focusing on the theatricality and humanity of Lincoln's second year in the White House (1862); a fevered, emotional epic about a U.S. president who read the Book of Job and the plays of Shakespeare, had the saddest face ever painted, openly wept in public, and led this country in a war that we're still fighting today. --p. 4 of cover. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Kennedy and King Steven Levingston, 2017 Kennedy and King is an unqualified masterpiece of historical narrative ... A landmark achievement.?-Douglas Brinkley, New York Times -bestselling author of Rosa Parks By reminding us of these great leaders and their accomplishments, this book will fuel your passion for the new work we still need to do in our society today.?-Congressman John Lewis Kennedy and King traces the emergence of two of the twentieth century's greatest leaders, their powerful impact on each other and on the shape of the civil rights battle between 1960 and 1963. These two men from starkly different worlds profoundly influenced each other's personal development. Kennedy's hesitation on civil rights spurred King to greater acts of courage, and King inspired Kennedy to finally make a moral commitment to equality. As America still grapples with the legacy of slavery and the persistence of discrimination, Kennedy and King is a vital, vivid contribution to the literature of the Civil Rights Movement. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Volume I Martin Luther King, Clayborne Carson, Peter Holloran, Penny A. Russell, 1992-01-09 Shares King's early writings. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau, |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Robert F. Kennedy Ray E. Boomhower, 2008-02-11 This account of a dramatic moment, and a classic speech, is “a must-read for anyone interested in presidential politics” (Indiana Magazine of History). On April 4, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy Jr., arrived in Indiana to campaign for the state’s Democratic presidential primary. As Kennedy prepared to fly from an appearance in Muncie to Indianapolis, he learned that civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., had been shot outside his hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. Before his plane landed in Indianapolis, Kennedy heard the news that King had died. Despite warnings from Indianapolis police that they could not guarantee his safety, and concerns from his own staff, Kennedy decided to proceed with plans to address an outdoor rally to be held in the heart of the city’s African American community. On that cold and windy evening, Kennedy broke the news of King’s death in an impassioned, extemporaneous speech on the need for compassion in the face of violence. It has proven to be one of the great speeches in American political history. This book explains what brought the politician to Indiana that day, and explores the characters and events of the 1968 Indiana Democratic presidential primary—in which Kennedy, who had been an underdog, would go on to a decisive victory. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Robert F. Kennedy and the Shaping of Civil Rights, 1960-1964 Philip A. Goduti, Jr., 2012-11-08 From the 1960 John F. Kennedy presidential campaign to the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and the Department of Justice worked tirelessly to change the climate of civil rights in the nation. This book explores how the Kennedy brothers and leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis and James Meredith, among others, pushed for change at a critical time. Through an analysis of White House memoranda, speeches, telephone conversations and recorded discussions as well as secondary sources, this study explores Robert Kennedy's role in key events of the civil rights movement, which include the Freedom Rides in 1961, the Ole Miss crisis in 1962 and the Birmingham campaign and March on Washington in 1963. The combined efforts of the Kennedys and these leaders helped change the atmosphere in the nation to one of acceptance and opportunity for African Americans and other minorities. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: The Awful Grace of God Stuart Wexler, Larry Hancock, 2013-04-09 The Awful Grace of God chronicles a multi–year effort to kill Martin Luther King Jr. by a group of the nation's most violent right–wing extremists. Impeccably researched and thoroughly documented, this examines figures like Sam Bowers, head of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi, responsible for more than three hundred separate acts of violence in Mississippi alone; J.B. Stoner, who ran an organization that the California attorney general said was more active and dangerous than any other ultra–right organization; and Reverend Wesley Swift, a religious demagogue who inspired two generations of violent extremists. United in a holy cause to kill King, this network of racist militants were the likely culprits behind James Earl Ray and King's assassination in Memphis on April 4th, 1968. King would be their ultimate prize—a symbolic figure whose assassination could foment an apocalypse that would usher in their Kingdom of God, a racially pure white world. Hancock and Wexler have sifted through thousands of pages of declassified and never–before–released law enforcement files on the King murder, conducted dozens of interviews with figures of the period, and re–examined information from several recent cold case investigations. Their study reveals a terrorist network never before described in contemporary history. They have unearthed data that was unavailable to congressional investigators and used new data–mining techniques to extend the investigation begun by the House Select Committee on Assassinations. The Awful Grace of God offers the most comprehensive and up–to–date study of the King assassination and presents a roadmap for future investigation. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: When Crack Was King Donovan X. Ramsey, 2024-07-02 LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A “vivid and frank” (NPR) account of the crack cocaine era and a community’s ultimate resilience, told through a cast of characters whose lives illuminate the dramatic rise and fall of the epidemic “A master class in disrupting a stubborn narrative, a monumental feat for the fraught subject of addiction in Black communities.”—The Washington Post “A poignant and compelling re-examination of a tragic era in America history . . . insightful . . . and deeply moving.”—Bryan Stevenson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Just Mercy FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • ONE OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND VULTURE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, NPR, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, She Reads, Electric Lit, The Mary Sue The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s is arguably the least examined crisis in American history. Beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan’s war on drugs, journalist Donovan X. Ramsey’s exacting analysis traces the path from the last triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement to the devastating realities we live with today: a racist criminal justice system, continued mass incarceration and gentrification, and increased police brutality. When Crack Was King follows four individuals to give us a startling portrait of crack’s destruction and devastating legacy: Elgin Swift, an archetype of American industry and ambition and the son of a crack-addicted father who turned their home into a “crack house”; Lennie Woodley, a former crack addict and sex worker; Kurt Schmoke, the longtime mayor of Baltimore and an early advocate of decriminalization; and Shawn McCray, community activist, basketball prodigy, and a founding member of the Zoo Crew, Newark’s most legendary group of drug traffickers. Weaving together riveting research with the voices of survivors, When Crack Was King is a crucial reevaluation of the era and a powerful argument for providing historically violated communities with the resources they deserve. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Threads of Peace Uma Krishnaswami, 2022-08-16 A look at the lives of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. and how they were led to seek revolution through peace-- |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Robert F. Kennedy: Ripples of Hope Kerry Kennedy, 2018-06-05 The daughter of Robert F. Kennedy shares personal remembrances of her father and through conversations with politicians, media personalities, celebrities and leaders, explores the influence that he continues to have on the issues at the heart of America's identity. Robert F. Kennedy staunchly advocated for civil rights, education, justice, and peace; his message transcended race, class, and creed, resonating deeply within and across America. He was the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency and was expected to run against Republican Richard Nixon in the 1968 presidential election, following in the footsteps of his late brother John. After winning the California presidential primary on June 5, 1968, Robert Kennedy was shot, and he died the following day. He was forty-two. Fifty years later, Robert Kennedy's passions and concerns and the issues he championed are -- for better and worse-still so relevant. Ripples of Hope explores Kennedy's influence on issues at the heart of America's identity today, including moral courage, economic and social justice, the role of government, international relations, youth, violence, and support for minority groups, among other salient topics. Ripples of Hope captures the legacy of former senator and U.S. attorney general Robert F. Kennedy through commentary from his daughter, as well as interviews with dozens of prominent national and international figures who have been inspired by him. They include Barack Obama, John Lewis, Marian Wright Edelman, Alfre Woodard, Harry Belafonte, Bono, George Clooney, Gloria Steinem, and more. They share personal accounts and stories of how Kennedy's words, life, and values have influenced their lives, choices, and actions. Through these interviews, Kerry Kennedy aims to enlighten people anew about her father's legacy and bring to life RFK's values and passions, using as milestones the end of his last campaign and a life that was cut off much too soon. Thurston Clarke provides a powerful foreword to the book with his previous reporting on RFK's funeral train. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Speeches of Note Shaun Usher, 2018-12-04 From the author of the New York Times bestseller Letters of Note comes a collection of 75 of history's most interesting, profound, and sometimes unknown speeches from a range of scintillating personalities such as Frederick Douglass, Justin Trudeau, Albert Einstein, Meghan Markle, Barbara Jordan, and Ursula K. Le Guin. This thoughtfully curated and richly illustrated collection celebrates oratory old and new, highlighting speeches we know and admire, while also shining a light on profound drafts that were never delivered or have until now been forgotten. From George Bernard Shaw's warm and rousing toast to Albert Einstein in 1930 and the commencement address affectionately given to graduates at Long Island University by Kermit the Frog, to the chilling public announcement (that was thankfully never made) by President Richard Nixon should Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become stranded on the moon, Speeches of Note honors the words and ideas of some of history’s most provocative and inspiring personages. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: American Heritage Book of Great American Speeches for Young People Suzanne McIntire, 2002-07-15 The history of the United States has been characterized by ferventidealism, intense struggle, and radical change. And for everycritical, defining moment in American history, there were thosewhose impassioned voices rang out, clear and true, and whose wordscompelled the minds and hearts of all who heard them. When PatrickHenry declared, Give me liberty, or give me death!, when MartinLuther King Jr. said, I have a dream, Americans listened and wereprofoundly affected. These speeches stand today as testaments tothis great nation made up of individuals with bold ideas andunshakeable convictions. The American Heritage Book of Great American Speeches for YoungPeople includes over 100 speeches by founding fathers, patriots,Native American and African American leaders, abolitionists,women's suffrage and labor activists, writers, athletes, and othersfrom all walks of life, featuring inspiring and unforgettablespeeches by such notable speakers as: Patrick Henry * Thomas Jefferson * Tecumseh * Frederick Douglass *Sojourner Truth * Abraham Lincoln * Susan B. Anthony * Mother Jones* Lou Gehrig * Franklin D. Roosevelt * Albert Einstein * Pearl S.Buck * Langston Hughes * John F. Kennedy * Martin Luther KingJr. These are the voices that shaped our history. They are powerful,moving, and, above all else, uniquely American. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Hoosiers and the American Story Madison, James H., Sandweiss, Lee Ann, 2014-10 A supplemental textbook for middle and high school students, Hoosiers and the American Story provides intimate views of individuals and places in Indiana set within themes from American history. During the frontier days when Americans battled with and exiled native peoples from the East, Indiana was on the leading edge of America’s westward expansion. As waves of immigrants swept across the Appalachians and eastern waterways, Indiana became established as both a crossroads and as a vital part of Middle America. Indiana’s stories illuminate the history of American agriculture, wars, industrialization, ethnic conflicts, technological improvements, political battles, transportation networks, economic shifts, social welfare initiatives, and more. In so doing, they elucidate large national issues so that students can relate personally to the ideas and events that comprise American history. At the same time, the stories shed light on what it means to be a Hoosier, today and in the past. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Scott Foresman Literature and Integrated Studies Alan Carroll Purves, 1997 |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: The Heavens Might Crack Jason Sokol, 2018-03-20 A vivid portrait of how Americans grappled with King's death and legacy in the days, weeks, and months after his assassination On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. At the time of his murder, King was a polarizing figure -- scorned by many white Americans, worshipped by some African Americans and liberal whites, and deemed irrelevant by many black youth. In The Heavens Might Crack, historian Jason Sokol traces the diverse responses, both in America and throughout the world, to King's death. Whether celebrating or mourning, most agreed that the final flicker of hope for a multiracial America had been extinguished. A deeply moving account of a country coming to terms with an act of shocking violence, The Heavens Might Crack is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand America's fraught racial past and present. |
| robert f kennedy mlk speech: Playing with Fire Lawrence O'Donnell, 2017-11-07 The New York Times bestseller! A thriller-like, propulsive tour through 1968, told by a man who is in love with American politics and who knows how all the dots connect. Brilliant and totally engrossing. -Rachel Maddow Delightful...brings to life the most fascinating election of modern times. -Walter Isaacson From the celebrated host of MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, an enthralling account of the presidential election that created American politics as we know it today Long before Lawrence O'Donnell was the anchor of his own political talk show, he was a senior adviser to Senator Patrick Moynihan, one of postwar America’s wisest political minds. The 1968 U.S. presidential election—marked by RFK’s assassination, massive upheaval in the Democratic Party, and the first of Richard Nixon’s dirty tricks—was O’Donnell’s own political coming of age. In the decades since, the election has remained one of his abiding fascinations, as it set the tone for so much of what followed in American politics, all the way through to today. Playing with Fire represents his master class in American electioneering, as well as an extraordinary human drama that captures a system, and a country, coming apart at the seams. |
Robert - Wikipedia
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic *Hrōþi- "fame" and *berhta- "bright" (Hrōþiberhtaz). [1] . Compare Old Dutch Robrecht and Old High German …
Meaning, origin and history of the name Robert
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Robert: meaning, origin, and significance explained
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Robert - Name Meaning and Origin
The name Robert is of Germanic origin and is derived from the elements "hrod," meaning "fame," and "beraht," meaning "bright." It carries the meaning of "bright fame" or "famous one." Robert …
Robert Knieriem - Advisory, Integration Sales Architect - LinkedIn
Over a decade of working in high-performing entrepreneurial, defense and enterprise sales teams. Interested in products that sit at the intersection of technical...
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Robert - Wikipedia
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic *Hrōþi- "fame" and *berhta- "bright" (Hrōþiberhtaz). [1] . Compare Old Dutch Robrecht and Old High German …
Meaning, origin and history of the name Robert
Oct 6, 2024 · From the Germanic name Hrodebert meaning "bright fame", derived from the elements hruod "fame" and beraht "bright". The Normans introduced this name to Britain, …
Robert: Name Meaning, Origin, Popularity - Parents
5 days ago · Robert is an old German name that means “bright fame.” It’s taken from the old German name Hrodebert. The name is made up of two elements: hrod which means "fame" …
Robert Kincaid (58) Great Falls, VA (270)723-7853
Apr 28, 2015 · Robert T Kincaid is 58 years old and was born in March of 1967. Currently Robert lives at the address 1098 Mccue Ct, Great Falls VA 22066. Robert has lived at this Great …
Robert: meaning, origin, and significance explained
Meaning: The name Robert is of English origin and carries the meaning of “Bright Fame.” It is a classic and timeless name that has been popular for centuries. Those named Robert are often …
Robert North in Virginia 11 people found - Whitepages
Find Robert's current address in Virginia, phone number and email. Contact information for people named Robert North found in Great Falls, Abingdon, Arlington and 6 other U.S. cities in VA, …
Robert - Name Meaning and Origin
The name Robert is of Germanic origin and is derived from the elements "hrod," meaning "fame," and "beraht," meaning "bright." It carries the meaning of "bright fame" or "famous one." Robert …
Robert Knieriem - Advisory, Integration Sales Architect - LinkedIn
Over a decade of working in high-performing entrepreneurial, defense and enterprise sales teams. Interested in products that sit at the intersection of technical...
Robert Wilson Mobley, AIA
Welcome to the web site of an architect who loves designing architecture of all types - particularly houses and changes to houses. I hope this site gives you a glimpse of my passion and love for …
Robert Name: Origin, Popularity, Hebrew, Biblical, & Spiritual …
Nov 15, 2023 · Robert offers a compelling combination of historical significance, distinguished origins, and widespread recognition. Its meaning of “bright fame” speaks to the potential for …
