In his own right: the political odyssey of Senator Robert F. Kennedy

Figure 1. Robert F. Kennedy with his brother, President John F. Kennedy, outside the Oval Office. Serving his brother's political career had been the defining element in Robert Kennedy's life up to November 22, 1963.

Figure 2. President Lyndon Johnson had Lawrence O'Brien, who was a Kennedy family friend and Johnson's special assistant at the time, send this photo of the signing of the Community Health Centers Act Amendments in 1965 to New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy as a friendly gesture. The conflict between Kennedy and Johnson would eventually tear the Democratic Party apart.

Figure 3. Kennedy in his Senate office with his two young aides, Peter Edelman and Adam Walinsky. Edelman and Walinsky would become important voices on Kennedy's staff calling on him to take ever stronger stands against the war in Vietnam and against Johnson's leadership.

Figure 4. Kennedy visiting wounded Naval veterans returned from Vietnam at the U.S. Naval hospital in St. Albans, Long Island, December 16, 1966. This kind of direct contact with the young war victims had a strong and lasting impact on Kennedy.

Figure 5. The launching of the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy from the Drydock in Newport News, May 27, 1967. It was a rare and solemn moment of prayer where Johnson and the Kennedy family gathered to honor the memory of President John F. Kennedy. Present are Robert and Ethel Kennedy, Rose Kennedy, Edward Kennedy, and Jacqueline, Caroline, and John F. Kennedy, Jr.

Figure 6. Robert, Edward, and Joseph P. Kennedy at a 1967 World Series baseball game. The elder Kennedy had been severely disabled by a stroke in 1962 which left him paralyzed and incapable of speech.

Figure 7. Kennedy relaxing at a Paris cafe in February 1967 while he was on a European tour where he received the controversial "peace feeler" from Hanoi.

Figure 8. A cartoon summing up Johnson's obsession with Kennedy's criticism and political challenge.

Figure 9. Kennedy breaking bread with United Farm Workers Union founder Cesar Chavez, who had fasted for 25 days in the name of nonviolence, on March 10, 1968.

Figure 10. Kennedy and Chavez, March 10, 1968. Kennedy called Chavez "a great man" and "an heroic figure of our time." A close personal friendship developed between the two leaders between 1966 and 1968.

Figure 11. Kennedy with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. Daley was Kennedy's most powerful informal ally among Democratic power-brokers he would need if he were to wrest the 1968 presidential nomination from the party leadership.

Figure 12. Kennedy is here caught expressing his frustration while campaigning in Oregon in May 1968. He became the first Kennedy to lose an election after a string of 26 consecutive victories. The Oregon loss on May 28, 1968 had the effect of energizing Kennedy's supporters in the California primary scheduled for June 4, 1968.

Figure 13. Kennedy on the stump in 1968 addressing one of many large gatherings.

Figure 14. Kennedy receiving a daisy from a supporter in New York City while on the campaign trail.

Figure 15. A typical street scene from South-Central Los Angeles during Kennedy's 1968 primary campaign.

Figure 16. Kennedy campaigning in the African-American neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Blacks and Latinos would prove the pivotal force in Kennedy's victory in the California primary.