Biography of robert kennedy

In , he was the tireless and effective manager of John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign. After the election, he was appointed Attorney General in President Kennedy's cabinet. While Attorney General, he won respect for his diligent, effective and nonpartisan administration of the Department of Justice. He also became increasingly committed to helping African Americans win the right to vote, attend integrated schools and use public accommodations.

He demonstrated his commitment to civil rights during a speech at the University of Georgia Law School: "We will not stand by or be aloof. We will move. I happen to believe that the [Supreme Court school desegregation] decision was right. But my belief does not matter. It is the law. Some of you may believe the decision was wrong. That does not matter.

The riot that had followed Meredith's registration at "Ole Miss" had left two dead and hundreds injured. Robert Kennedy believed that voting was the key to achieving racial justice and collaborated with President Kennedy in proposing the most far-reaching civil rights statute since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act of , which passed eight months after President Kennedy's death.

Robert Kennedy was not only President Kennedy's Attorney General, he was also his closest advisor and confidant. As a result of this unique relationship, the Attorney General played a key role in several critical foreign policy decisions. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, for instance, he helped develop the Kennedy administration's strategy to blockade Cuba instead of taking military action that could have led to nuclear war.

Kennedy entered the presidential race in opposition to the Johnson administration's Vietnam policy and as a progressive voice on urban and racial issues. Robert F. National Portrait Gallery Robert F. National Postal Museum 15c Robert F. These programs were part of a larger effort to address the needs of the dispossessed and powerless in America — the poor, the young, racial minorities, and Native Americans.

These conditions are not confined to rural Mississippi. They exist in dark tenements in Washington, D. There are children in each of these areas who have never been to school, never seen a doctor or a dentist. There are children who have never heard conversation in their homes, never read or even seen a book. He sought to remedy the problems of poverty through legislation to encourage private industry to locate in poverty-stricken areas, thus creating jobs for the unemployed and stressed the importance of work over welfare.

In March of he traveled to Delano, California to break bread with United Farmworkers leader Cesar Chavez, who was ending a day fast to draw attention to the conditions facing migrant farmworkers in California. Kennedy was also absorbed during his Senate years by a quest to end the war in Vietnam. He called for a greater commitment to a negotiated settlement and a renewed emphasis on economic and political advancement within South Vietnam.

Biography of robert kennedy

I think we can do something about it. On March 16, , Robert Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. In the words of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. His campaign brought hope to an American people troubled by discontent and violence at home and the overseas conflict in Vietnam. After completing his military service, in Kennedy graduated from Harvard University , the alma mater of his father and older brothers.

He went on to attend law school at the University of Virginia , earning his degree in That same year, Kennedy began working as a lawyer in the U. Department of Justice. The following year, Kennedy worked as an assistant counsel for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, headed by anticommunist crusader Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.

In the late s, as chief counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field, Kennedy gained national attention for investigating corruption in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a powerful trade union led by Jimmy Hoffa. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from to , while his daughter Kathleen was lieutenant governor of Maryland from to After John F.

In this role, Kennedy continued to battle corruption in labor unions, as well as mobsters and organized crime. In , Jimmy Hoffa was convicted of jury tampering and fraud. As attorney general, Kennedy also supported the civil rights movement for African Americans.