Robert F. Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968), U.S. political leader and legislator, brother of President John F. Kennedy. Robert Francis Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. He interrupted his undergraduate studies at Harvard University to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war he returned to Harvard and in 1948 received a B.A. degree. He was awarded an LL.B. degree from the University of Virginia in 1951. Later that year he became an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice, leaving that post the following year to manage the senatorial campaign of his older brother, John. Following the campaign, Robert Kennedy returned to government service as counsel to several Senate subcommittees. He first gained national prominence as chief counsel (1955-1957) of the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee in its investigation of Teamster Union executives David Beck and James Hoffa.

In 1960, following the election of his brother to the presidency, Robert Kennedy was appointed U.S. attorney general. His tenure in that office was marked by active enforcement of civil rights laws. He resigned his cabinet post in 1964 and in the same year was elected U.S. senator from New York. As senator, Kennedy showed himself to be particularly concerned with the problems of urban ghettos and of the poor and disadvantaged.

In the spring of 1968 Kennedy, who sharply differed with some of the policies of President Lyndon B. Johnson, campaigned for the Democratic Party nomination. By June 1968, he had won major preference primaries in Indiana, Nebraska, and California. Upon leaving a celebration in Los Angeles after his victory in the California primary was assured, Kennedy was shot by the Jerusalem-born Jordanian Sirhan Bishara Sirhan; Kennedy died the following day, June 6, 1968. His gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery is near that of President Kennedy.