Bobby Kennedy: Assassination of a Future President

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bobby Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign had an aura around it. Its urgency, idealism and raw emotion connected with a nation in turmoil. But his life was cut short, just as his brother's had been, by an assassin's bullet.

Don's guest to help capture this remarkable man and campaign is Patricia Sullivan, Professor of history at the University of South Carolina and author "Justice Rising: Robert Kennedy’s America in Black and White".

Please note this episode contains outdated strong language which has been used for historical context and accuracy

Produced by Freddy Chick. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, all. Just a note for me before we get into this, this episode contains outdated strong language,
0:05.8	which has been used for historical context and accuracy.
0:10.7	That night at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, standing in that crowd cheering,
0:17.2	you're part of something big. A movement, a mission, a blooming spirit of hope,
0:23.2	a presidential campaign that had stirred the soul of a nation.
0:27.1	And then, as suddenly as it began, it was over.
0:31.6	In the early morning moments of June 5, 1968, in a place once famously known for hosting the Academy Awards, now to be eternally
0:40.5	remembered for bullets and blood. And another Kennedy brother, fallen, gasping for life.
1:02.6	Music Hello and greetings. This is American History Hit. I'm Don Wildman. Glad you're listening.
1:12.3	Today's episode is a tale of an almost presidency, a presidential campaign which ended in tragic circumstances, similar in some ways to the death of the candidate's own brother, in whose former administration he had faithfully served.
1:16.8	I'm speaking, of course, of Robert F. Kennedy, who, like his famous sibling, died of an
1:22.0	assassin's bullet. Kennedy's short campaign for the presidency happened in a crucible. It was
1:27.1	1968. There was the
1:28.8	ongoing civil rights struggle as black, brown, and indigenous Americans stood their ground against
1:34.1	discrimination and poverty. Massive riots occurred across the nation, in Watts, 1965, after
1:39.9	Malcolm X was murdered, in Detroit, Newark, Buffalo, 1967, and in 68, of course, after Dr. King met his
1:47.3	sudden end on a Memphis balcony. These horrific events of civil unrest in those years
1:52.6	seemed to finally culminate in a fateful evening at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles,
1:58.2	where Robert Kennedy and his supporters celebrated victory in the California
2:01.7	primary. Most predicted he would secure the Democratic nomination later that summer and face
2:06.6	off against his brother's arch rival, Richard Nixon, a race seen by many as redemption for his
2:12.4	family, in some ways for his brother's killing. But over the months, Kennedy's candidacy evolved into
	...

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