Original subtitles

[Mudd] No American in this century has ever been so likely to be president,

as Robert Francis Kennedy.

[officer] Ladies and gentlemen, please move back to the sidewalk.

Allow the motorcade to pass.

Please move back to the sidewalk.

Come on!

[screaming]

[Mudd] Here in California,

the caravan provided the love feast Kennedy has come to expect.

[overlapping chatter, cheering]

[Mudd] It happened again, as in city after city,

a mob scene and a traffic jam tying up much of downtown.

[Lewis] In California, it was unreal.

They had to hold him in the car, because people was pulling on all sides.

[Mudd] He was touched, trapped,

and, at one point, torn from his car,

wrenching the hip of the man who usually holds him erect.

[crowd shouting, cheering]

May God bless!

May God be with you.

He was seen as a young, revolutionary, radical figure

who represents change.

[Mudd] He has spoken out often on the three issues,

which inflame most Americans, most of the time:

Vietnam, civil rights and poverty.

I think we can make a major difference in the United States for all of our people,

and for peace all over the rest of the world.

[crowd cheering]

[Mudd] And yet no politician engenders such extremes of devotion and distrust.

I did not really support Robert Kennedy early on,

because I thought he was just a young rich kid,

you know, trying to make it into politics.

I think he's trying to ride on his father's fortune,

and, uh, his brother's fame.

[Mudd] The John Kennedy haters of the early Sixties.

Some southerners, businessmen and conservative suburbanites

have now become the "Bobby haters" of the late Sixties.

My image of him was not very strong.

I had remembered him from the Justice Department,

and the taping of Martin Luther King.

In certain cases, wiretapping, uh, listening in on a telephone conversation

can be most helpful.

[Lewis] In the early days, President Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy

did not want to appear to be moving too fast for civil rights.

[Robert] As far as Martin Luther King is concerned,

we called for a cooling-off period.

People have, uh, gone into the streets,

and created disorders without any purpose.

[Lewis] But he saw people suffering.

That helped change him.

He fell in love with people.

[Schrade] He turned into one of the most sincere persons involved in human values,

and trying to do the right thing.

Trying to do justice.

It's not just the poor who are suffering,

it's not just those who want a better education who are suffering,

it's not only those who need jobs and employment who are suffering,

but the whole country is suffering,

and I don't think any of us can be satisfied,

or happy, or contented, or filled with joy,

while that war goes on, and while that money is being spent,

and American lives are being lost in the devastation of Vietnam.

[crowd cheering]

[crowd chanting] We want justice! We want justice!

[Schrade] The campaign, in California, was really wonderful.

The vote count was beginning to look very good.

Then on the last day of the campaign...

we lost him.

This photograph shows Robert Kennedy and me lying on the floor.

It also shows a friend of mine, Cap Hardy, leaning over me,

and putting one of the Kennedy campaign hats over my face,

because he thought I was dead.

There were five people besides Bob shot that night.

I was the first one hit, in the center of my forehead.

Losing Robert Kennedy was just, you know, difficult to live with,

because he provided so much hope for us.

I first got involved with Bob Kennedy in the early Sixties.

I was working, at the time, for the United Autoworkers Union on civil rights,

on workers' rights, and so forth.

And I've got major files in the store room over here

that deal with labor movement, peace movement and farm workers' movements.

But mostly dealing with the Robert Kennedy case.

This great event, Robert Kennedy flew in

for end of César Chávez's 23-day fast - there I am.

In 1968, I became a part of Bob's campaign for president.

I was vice chairman for labor.

In the late Sixties, a lot of forces were coming together

through the anti-war movement, through the labor movement,

the student movement, the war on poverty.

It was just a very lively, dynamic period,

and, fortunately, we had Bob Kennedy to help lead us.

Robert Francis Kennedy

was born on November 20, 1925 in Brookline, Massachusetts.

One of a family of four boys and five girls.

Born to Rose and Joseph Patrick Kennedy.

His father, of second-generation immigrant stock,

had become Boston's youngest bank president,

and went on to amass a fortune and become the American ambassador to Great Britain.

This is my first trip to Europe, and I'm very excited.

I couldn't even sleep last night.

[reporter] You grew up knowing that you'd never have to worry too much about money.

Could you put emphasis upon something else?

I think so. Of course, it's a great advantage, obviously.

It was stressed in our family

that because we had these tremendous advantages,

which other people did not have,

that, in turn, we had a responsibility to others.

[reporter] You have a reputation for toughness, for being the fighter,

because your father fostered a spirit of competition in the family.

[Robert] Yes, family life was competitive,

but I was number seven, so I was quite far down.

I was just trying to survive! [laughs]

[Adams] I first met Robert Kennedy when he came to Milton Academy.

He loved playing football.

Winning was important to him. You win, or you're nobody.

He fought hard, but he was very fair-minded.

Any time there was bullying,

he would take the side of the underdog.

Well, I think part of the sense of right and wrong

came from being Catholic.

He was very religious.

Bobby was the runt of the litter,

so he had a lot to prove to himself, and to his father.

[announcer] At Harvard, playing with a fractured right leg in a cast,

Bob earned his letter against Yale.

Something none of his brothers had done before him.

♪ Grab your partner, grab your gal ♪

♪ And rock ♪

♪ Rock, rock, rock, rock, everybody ♪

♪ Rock, rock, rock, rock, everybody

♪ Rock, rock, rock, rock, everybody

♪ You rock it, and you rock it And you rock it around ♪

[reporter] Interrupting his college education

to serve in the Navy during World War II,

he returned to earn a law degree from the University of Virginia.

[reporter #2] Bob Kennedy was once asked

what was the most important decision of his life.

His answer: marrying Ethel.

♪ Rock, everybody ♪

♪ You rock it, and you rock it And you rock it around ♪

[host] Senator, yours is a quite exceptionally political family.

Was it inevitable that you would enter some form of politics?

I think I would have ended up in politics or government.

We were brought up in that kind of an atmosphere.

My grandfather was mayor of Boston, and he was a congressman from Boston.

Then, of course, my father was involved in politics and government.

My oldest brother Joe, before he was killed, was in government.

And then, of course, uh, after the war my brother Jack

was in politics and government.

And I was involved in running his campaigns.

[announcer] American people have spoken with a resounding voice at the polls.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected.

The Republican party is back in power.

♪ Rock, rock, rock, rock, everybody

♪ Roll, roll, roll, roll, everybody

[reporter] In Massachusetts' Senate race, John F. Kennedy

scores one of the few major Democratic victories.

[reporter] The Kennedy magic worked.

Kennedy put on a blistering campaign, which produced a major political upset.

My brother, Bobby, who managed the campaign,

perhaps he can give us some idea, more up to date, of what the final figures were.

I think that, uh, from what we've got up to about 20 minutes ago,

that you were winning by about 70,000.

-I guess you're glad it's over, Bobby. -I am, Jack.

OK.

♪ And you rock it around ♪

[Gallagher] I had great admiration for Jack Kennedy.

He was a hero in World War II, and we became friends.

But I was always ambivalent about Bobby.

I liked him very much as a person.

In fact, I played tennis over at his house.

We got to laugh together.

He had a great family.

His wife, Ethel, a wonderful woman.

But it seemed to me that Bobby Kennedy,

he was two people.

The other side of Bobby was a very determined young man.

He was very ambitious, aggressive,

very sharp elbows for anybody in his way.

As a young man, Bobby got the job as a lawyer,

chasing communists with that terrible man, Joe McCarthy.

[announcer] He has traveled far, interviewed many, terrorized some.

There are communists working in our defense plants.

There are communists being left unmolested

in our government.

The question is, will you give the FBI

any information you may have

about members of the communist conspiracy?

On that question, I am going to refuse to answer you.

[Gallagher] Bobby was nuts on the communists.

There was an insanity about communists in those days.

Then he got the job with the McClellan Committee,

going after union leaders, and their connection with organized crime.

[announcer] The committee's attorney questioning Teamsters leader, Jim Hoffa.

Did you say, "That SOB, I'll break his back"?

-Who? -[Robert] You.

I did to who?

[Robert] To anyone. Did you make that statement?

You can't remember whether Johnny Dio was in your room?

The man who was under indictment for throwing acid in Victor Riesel's eyes?

You can't remember what you talked about?

It wouldn't have been of any importance, Mr. Kennedy, and I can't recall it.

And he saw the power and publicity

in going after people that the McClellan Committee had.

Bob, tell me this:

Do you think the television coverage of the hearings has some real value?

I think it's been terrific, tremendous.

Mrs. Kennedy, are the youngsters aware

of the fact that their father has been a television personality this summer?

Well, uh, they are, Mr. Murrow.

I think this is never more true

than when one day the hearings ran over 15 minutes into Mickey Mouse.

The children were very displeased with their father that night.

And people who watch the Jimmy Hoffa hearings, since that time,

people have written to us that they saw them on television,

and made suggestions to us as to what leads we might follow up.

[Gallagher] I think that was a little scary part of Bobby.

Jack Kennedy jokingly said,

"You know, Neil, I love Bobby. He's my brother and a great guy."

He said, "But he's a cop at heart,

and at the end of the day, if he didn't have somebody to arrest,

I think he'd arrest Rose."

It was a joke, but it really summed it up, too.

[reporter] These are the people of Wisconsin,

where there's going to be a presidential primary next Tuesday.

Here in Wisconsin have come Jack Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey.

[reporter] From a well-staffed headquarters in downtown Milwaukee,

Bobby Kennedy directs the most skillful team of political operators.

They are trying for a knockout, a victory that will entirely eliminate Humphrey.

[Adams] Bobby was at his best as a campaign manager.

His father taught him never to come in second, and he loved his brother dearly.

He wanted this for him.

He's got a considerable amount of strength around the country,

starting in New England, but also in the Midwest and in the Rocky Mountain states.

But I think a lot of it's going to depend on how well he does in the primaries.

To me, the Kennedys represented a new generation,

and a great change in the American scene.

There is a new generation going to take over here in the United States.

This country is going to move ahead.

We're going to have to be strong enough here in the US

if we're going to preserve the peace.

We're not going to stand still.

We're going to face up to our problems

and reestablish our prestige and our position in the world.

That's what Senator Kennedy's going to do when he's elected president.

[crowd cheering]

[camera shutter clicking]

The self-confidence of the Kennedys came from many sources,

but certainly a primary source was the family.

I mean, they were very close at every level,

and always sustaining one another.

[reporter] The Kennedy women arrive. First, Ethel. Then the senator's sisters.

I sort of feel like an independent merchant,

competing against a chain store when I compete with the Kennedy family!

People often ask me, "Now, which Kennedy are you?"

My brother, Jack, people are not even sure about which Kennedy he is.

He was coming up here about three months ago

to decide whether he'd go in the Wisconsin primary.

He sat in an airplane, next to a little old lady. It was her first flight.

She looked and she said, "You're one of the Kennedy boys, aren't you?"

And he said, "Yes."

"I think you've done a wonderful job as counsel

for the Senate Rackets Committee."

And Jack said, "That's not me. That's my brother." So then the lady said...

"But I think those seven beautiful children are just wonderful."

And Jack said, "Well, that's not me. That's my brother."

Finally she said, "Well, tell your brother I wish him all the luck in the world

in his bid for the presidential nomination."

He said, "No, no, no. That's me. That's me."

[man] You will be pleased to have the privilege

of seeing Bob Kennedy, Senator Kennedy's son - brother!

[crowd laughing]

Uh, thank you very much. I'm sorry that my mother couldn't be here tonight.

[crowd laughing]

And I'm sorry that my sister, Pat, couldn't come,

and my sister, Eunice, and my sister, Jean,

my brother-in-law, Peter Lawford, or my brother, Teddy,

or my cousin, Joe Gargan, or my cousin...

[crowd laughing]

So you're going to have to settle with me. Thank you very much.

[crowd cheering, whooping]

Great appreciation to my brother, Bobby,

who has directed our primary campaigns, and the organization in all of them,

as he did in my campaign for the Senate in 1952.

And, of course, he has been the most essential figure.

[crowd cheering]

[reporter] We've arrived in Los Angeles,

the city seething with convention excitement.

There seems to be no doubt Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts

is far and away in the lead for the Democratic nomination.

However, there are many supporters of Stevenson and Johnson,

who still are firmly convinced that he will be stopped.

[Heuvel] I was at the 1960 convention.

We felt that there was the opportunity to create a world

where democracy would prevail,

and where social justice would be an objective.

...to lead us to a fruitful America,

to a peaceful world for mankind everywhere

is the great senator from the state of Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy!

[crowd cheering]

[Schrade] I worked with Bob Kennedy in the 1960 convention

to help shift Stevenson delegates over to Jack Kennedy.

I really connected with Bob.

I could see how effective he was.

[reporter] Bobby Kennedy and Abe Ribicoff, the Kennedy floor leaders,

plead, urge, cajole for individual votes.

[Heuvel] Nevertheless, some of the bosses of the Democratic Party

thought there was no doubt Lyndon Johnson was going to win this nomination.

Johnson was a major figure in the US Senate for the Democratic Party,

which was, in large measure, still controlled by southern political forces.

Senator, would you agree with Senator Kennedy,

who said that he thought you were his chief opposition,

because you had more delegates than anybody else?

Well, I... I have great respect for Senator Kennedy,

and maybe he has more information on the delegates I have than I do.

[reporter] During four hours of nominations and demonstrations,

the final struggle for votes goes on.

Senator Kennedy, 104 and a half.

...the vote will make the majority to Senator Kennedy.

[crowd cheering]

[reporter] Governors, mayors, senators, bosses

gather to form a protective escort for the young new leader.

Tomorrow, in an all-day tussle, he must choose a vice president.

[Heuvel] John Kennedy offered the vice presidency to Lyndon Johnson.

It was a stunning blow to everybody.

[reporter] He has met with Senator Johnson for about 15, 20 minutes

in Senator Johnson's suite.

[Heuvel] Bobby was surprised, too.

Bobby certainly was not for Johnson's nomination as vice president.

If you could think of two different personalities

in the context of politics and public life, they were that.

I mean, Johnson, the glad-hander, the bully,

the pusher, the getting down, whispering in your ear,

calling you up at all hours of the day or night.

They just didn't like each other.

So Bobby went to see him to say, "You know, did you really mean it?

Are you really accepting it?

This has got a lot of dangers to it.

Aren't you better off staying in the Senate?" All of that.

But Johnson knew Bobby didn't like him.

Johnson never forgave that.

[reporter] There's Senator Kennedy now. Senator Johnson next to him.

Being photographed together for the first time. This is the ticket.

We will carry the fight to the people in the fall,

and we shall win!

[crowd cheering]

[reporter] Things are starting to pop as candidates hit the presidential trail.

[Robert] I think we have a great deal of work.

I think that the work on registration will be extremely helpful.

Getting out the vote might very well be the key to victory here on November 8.

Approximately, 3,600,000 people in the state of New York are unregistered.

Most of these people would vote Democratic if they were put on the books.

I believe there's a real trend on now for Senator Kennedy and the Democratic Party.

We are encouraged.

[reporter] While Nixon slugs it out with Kennedy,

his vice presidential mate, Henry Cabot Lodge,

makes headlines with an appeal for the Negro votes,

critical in carrying big northern states.

There ought to be a Negro in the cabinet, and I'll go further.

If Nixon is elected, there will be a qualified Negro in the cabinet.

[Belafonte] This country's dance with race has been very difficult.

The Kennedys were in the middle

of a transitional moment for America.

The most important black icon, Jackie Robinson,

had turned against the Democratic Party,

and became committed to the Republican cause.

So the Democrats looked for black public figures, and I was targeted.

My career was on the ascendancy.

♪ Well, John Henry's family needed money ♪

♪ Said he didn't have but a dime ♪

♪ If you wait till the red sun goes down ♪

♪ I'll get it from the men In the mine, Lordy Lord ♪

♪ I'll get it from the men in the mine ♪

♪ I'll get it from the men In the mine, Lordy Lord ♪

♪ I'll get it from the men in the mine ♪

[Belafonte] I did not get the sense that the Kennedys were as deeply caught up

in the conversation of civil rights and black rights as they should have been.

Also, my first knowledge of Bobby Kennedy

was when he had spent time with Joe McCarthy.

And those of us who were very much involved in the movement

were constantly being accused of being communist sympathizers.

So in the beginning, Bobby looked at us rather suspiciously.

Uh... And the feelings were reciprocal.

When John came to meet,

I concluded that he didn't know very much, and I told him so.

And before I could endorse him, I would have to come to grips

with how he felt about this young new force on the horizon

named Martin Luther King, Jr.

[reporter] Martin Luther King is arrested in Atlanta at a restaurant sit-in,

then sentenced to hard labor.

Negro leaders fear for his life.

[Belafonte] King had been arrested,

but John Kennedy, he didn't say much on the subject.

[Wofford] Kennedy wanted to do something, to say something,

but he knew it might endanger his chance of holding the majority

of the white opinion in the south, and carrying the south in the election.

And the idea came to me and others, "Why shouldn't he just call Mrs. King?"

She was very anxious.

"Why can't Kennedy at least just call her and say we're working at it,

we're going to get him out, you have my sympathy."

A personal direct act.

And Kennedy said, "That's a wonderful idea."

Dialed her.

Talked to her.

Then, later in the morning, he started telling his strategists,

and Robert Kennedy gave us hell.

And I've never been chewed out by anybody as angrily as I was by Robert Kennedy.

He said, "Close your civil rights section. You've probably lost the election.

We had three southern governors tell us

that if you support Khrushchev, Castro, or Martin Luther King,

we're going to throw our votes to Nixon."

And then, that very night,

Robert Kennedy called the judge in Georgia to get King out of jail.

And we asked Bob Kennedy, you know,

"After you were so angry, why did you do that?"

He said, "As I went up to New York on the plane and thought about it,

and King in jail with that sentence,

and screwing up our politics in this country,

and maybe losing the election for my brother,

I got so mad that I got that judge on the phone."

[Belafonte] Then we woke up one day, and found out that Bobby intervened

with the Georgia officials.

[reporter] Next day, the weight of Kennedy's opinion is felt in Georgia.

King is released, safe on bail.

As word spreads, Negro votes shift to Kennedy.

Uh, I don't know the details of it,

but, naturally, I'm very happy to know of Senator Kennedy's concern,

and all that he did to make this possible.

Uh, I might say that there are no political implications here.

I'm sure that the senator did it, because of his real concern,

and his humanitarian bent.

[Belafonte] That finally won many of us over to the Democrats.

There are many Negros in America who still do not have the right to vote.

There are many of us who do.

And I think that we should use that right.

I'm voting for Senator Jack Kennedy.

How about you?

[reporter] A record number of Americans, upwards of 67 million,

go to the polls to elect the 35th President of the United States.

At his Hyannis Port, Massachusetts residence,

the Democratic candidate and his wife stoically waited out the returns.

[reporter] Now begins the time of waiting.

As dusk falls over Hyannis Port,

the atmosphere at headquarters in Bobby Kennedy's cottage grows tense.

This will be no sweep.

This is to be touch and go.

[reporter] Nixon leads by a shade in popular votes.

He also holds an early lead in states with 173 of the 269 electoral votes

needed to make a man president.

[reporter] Minute after minute, hour after hour,

the Kennedys wait for a decision on these hair-breadth races,

and none comes.

[reporter] Shortly after 3:00 in the morning, East Coast time,

the networks bring the picture of the vice president.

Uh, while there are still some results still to come in,

uh, if the present trend continues,

Mr. Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, will be the next President of the United States.

[crowd cheering]

Now, uh, my wife and I prepare for a new administration.

And for a new baby. Thank you.

[crowd applauding]

[reporter] John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

The long campaign comes to an end,

and a successful one for him...

despite the fact that the popular vote was a very, very narrow affair.

Mr. Kennedy, would you have a place in a Kennedy administration?

Uh, well, nothing's been said to me.

And I don't think I would,

because of the reason I think that it's virtually impossible

in view of our relationship.

Nepotism.

♪ Things looked up ♪

♪ Believe it or not ♪

♪ But Jack was calm ♪

♪ And Jack said I've got ♪

♪ My Bobby ♪

♪ My Bobby ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh ♪

♪ And Bobby ♪

♪ Played it cool ♪

[Robert] My father was strongly in favor of my being attorney general.

I think it just eventually came down to just the fact that, um, President Kennedy

felt that it might be nice to have somebody around

that he could discuss things with.

For that reason, I did it.

He has proven his ability in almost ten years of public service.

I am pleased to accept the position of the attorney generalship of the United States.

I understand and realize the great problems and difficulties

that will be facing all of us in that position.

[Heuvel] There was criticism of his appointment.

Robert Kennedy was 35 years old when his brother appointed him.

He had never practiced law in the private sector.

Many people questioned the nepotistic aspect of it, the lack of experience.

So there was a lot of people watching very, very closely.

And that building across the street there is the US Department of Justice.

You may be able to see lights burning in the fifth-floor office

of Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

The late-night work is a symbol of the vigor of the Kennedy administration.

[Gallagher] Bobby was not necessarily satisfied

with the way things were functioning,

so he sort of reengineered the Department of Justice.

[Heuvel] After the election, he invited me in, and we had a long interview.

I became his special assistant.

I knew that Robert Kennedy was a centerpiece of the new frontier

of young people coming in,

and commanding and handling difficult problems.

[phone ringing]

[Edelman] I went to work in the Justice Department with Robert Kennedy.

And he was a terrific... terrific person to work for.

It was an office where characteristically his sleeves were always rolled up.

I think it connoted that we're working hard, but also that we were informal.

Hello?

Oh, I think you got the wrong number.

All right.

-[man] Pick up that phone. -Hello?

[indistinct chatter, laughter]

[Heuvel] Nobody had to ask for loyalty.

Robert Kennedy evoked from everybody who worked for him

a sense of loyalty, and a sense that his invitation to participate and to lead

was to invite them to look to broader horizons.

I think he was

so sincere in what he believed in those days,

but he was crossing the line

on things that shouldn't happen in America.

Some of these big-time gangsters corrupt the very system under which we live,

and something has to be done about it,

and the only thing going to be done is by the American people,

and those charged with authority taking some major steps and doing them now.

[Gallagher] He brought in a lot of very, very smart people,

and said, "Hey, OK, we have a constitution.

But let's get that guy. Never mind what the law says.

Just find a way around,

and let's get Hoffa.

Let's get the mafia.

Let's get anybody they want to bring the full force

of the Justice Department against."

All of a sudden, everybody's being wiretapped. Mail openings.

Garbage collections.

Knocking on the doors. Raids.

Suppression of civil liberties.

[reporter] General Kennedy, why do you disagree with the judge's statement

that wiretapping is dirty business?

I don't know to what you're referring.

Robert Kennedy, in fact, was the guy

who did sign the bugging, the wiretapping of Dr. King.

Hoover, head of the FBI,

was convinced that all the black leaders were communists.

Bobby was his boss.

And Bobby did sign it.

[Lippman] The attorney general, Bobby, is a very attractive human being,

but his greatest weakness,

the thing that I worried about before he was appointed,

is that when he's bent on what he thinks is the right course,

he's rather ruthless in action.

[Gallagher] With the reengineering of the law-enforcement apparatus,

Bobby Kennedy's Justice Department

displaced the state control of crime and law enforcement,

and substituted that with the creation of a de-facto federal police force,

instead of having a local US attorney.

Bobby was a great guy for sending in strike-force people from out of the state.

Now, applying it to the south,

it had some great value down south where they were oppressing the black people.

You can never

whip these boys,

if you don't keep you and them separate.

You've got to keep the white and the black separate.

The people that wrote the Declaration of Independence kept slaves,

and I know Abraham Lincoln never planned to allow general mixing of the races.

In fact, he said the solution was to send the Negroes back to Africa.

We're not used to them sitting beside us, because I wasn't raised with them.

I never have lived with them, and I'm not going to start now.

I'm sorry. Our management does not allow us to serve niggers in here.

One of the most important components of the Civil Rights Movement

was to put the pressure on,

and to maintain constant pressure to win the sympathy of the government.

There was something deep down within me, moving me

that I could no longer be satisfied, or go along with an evil system.

[Lewis] I had a feeling President Kennedy

and his brother, the attorney general, Robert Kennedy,

were not fully understanding what was happening,

and what had happened in the south.

There are injustices that exist in some of these communities,

and the white leadership refuses to even discuss,

even meet with Negroes to discuss those injustices.

They didn't want to do anything

to offend the Democratic white leadership in the south.

On the other hand, I think that the Negroes,

once whites agree to sit down, and try to remedy these problems,

that the Negroes have to show some understanding,

and, uh, and... meet with them,

and not have demonstrations just to demonstrate,

not to demonstrate just to show their political strength,

just to create disorder without any purpose.

And the Freedom Riders of 1961

became the first real test for the administration.

[reporter] From all over the country,

mixed groups traveling by bus entered the south

determined to challenge the practice

of providing separate facilities for Negro and white travelers.

[Lewis] You would walk into a so-called white waiting room,

maybe take seats at a lunch counter.

You go into a restroom, and you would be arrested.

And Robert Kennedy was saying,

"This is the role of the state,

and not the role of the Department of Justice to play."

[Robert] I don't see that the Freedom Riders,

who are so-called Freedom Riders,

who are making these trips accomplish a great deal.

I question their wisdom.

I don't question their legal right to travel, but I question, uh, their wisdom.

I think that, uh, some people can get hurt.

Now, the matter is in the courts.

It seems to me that that's the proper place for it to be.

Then the bus was burned in Anniston, Alabama.

I learned about it when I came to my office on a Monday morning

that there had been a bus burning,

and I was terribly concerned about that.

The situation was building up in rather an ugly fashion.

[Lewis] We arrive in downtown Montgomery.

The very moment that we started off the bus...

an angry mob of men, women, and children, teenagers...

they start just beating people with anything they could use as a weapon.

We were pinned up against a wall, and we were beaten.

I was hit in the head by a man with a wooden crate.

We thought we were going to die on that day.

Why are you going on with the trip?

Well, I feel that it's got to be done now,

and I might as well be willing to sacrifice this ultimate gift,

and that's my life, I guess.

[reporter] Dr. King became directly involved in the new movement

as Chairman of the Freedom Rider Coordinating Committee.

Later that night, we met with him.

We started planning a mass meeting at a little church.

And a mob that evening tried to burn the church.

And now we've had an ugly mob outside.

Uh, they burned some automobiles.

But, uh, we are not,

we are not giving in for what we are standing for,

and, uh, maybe it takes something like this

for the federal government to see

that Alabama is not going to place any limit upon itself.

It must be imposed from without.

[Lewis] Dr. King went down into the basement,

and made a call to Robert Kennedy,

and just said to him in so many words,

"We have a very dangerous situation here.

If you fail to intervene or do something, people will be killed."

And it was then, after we found that law and order couldn't be maintained,

that, uh, we sent in marshals to ensure that there was protection.

In this situation, I want to make this announcement

that the city is now under martial law,

and troops are on the way into Montgomery.

[crowd cheering]

[reporter] How long will the marshals remain in Alabama?

As soon as the federal government is shown by action

that the state of Alabama can deal with law enforcement on their own,

the US Marshals will be out of there.

[reporter] How effective do you feel the marshals were?

I don't think there's any question that they saved a number of lives,

and prevented widespread bloodshed.

[Farmer] As a result of the Freedom Rides,

the Interstate Commerce Commission issued a ruling,

which went into effect on November 1st,

ordering that all the segregation signs must come down in the terminals,

and that in their place must be posted desegregation signs.

[Belafonte] In that period of time,

Bobby Kennedy and I

began to develop an appreciation for one another.

And I soon found myself a guest at his home,

where I got to know Ethel, and a lot of his children.

He was a great father from what I saw,

and his children romped all over him.

Unlike most guys that had his capacity and his power,

he was not absent.

And I felt somewhere in him resided a moral center

that was far beyond what may have been expressed politically.

I had gotten a call from James Baldwin, a great black writer,

who had befriended the Kennedys.

He said, "I'm coming to New York,

and I'd like to bring a little group of black people together to talk with Bobby.

Baldwin suspected that here was an opportunity from a very willing individual

to know more about what's going on.

I think that one has got to find some way...

of putting the present administration of this country on the spot.

One has got to force somehow from Washington

a moral commitment,

not to the Negro people, but to the life of this country.

[Belafonte] Bobby offered his apartment that they had on Central Park South.

And we got to this apartment. We had a lovely meal.

He was a gracious host,

and everything stayed on a very light, drifting level.

And he turned the conversation to the war in Vietnam,

and what role were black people expected to play to defend this nation.

And a young man by the name of Jerome Smith,

who had been beaten near death as a civil rights activist, said to Bobby,

"I'm out of here. I want nothing to do with this.

What do you have us here for? What's your game?"

And then he just ripped it to the bone.

And, uh, it kind of shocked Bobby.

Jerome took the position that, as a black man,

he would never commit himself to fighting for this country.

That triggered Kennedy's passion.

And Bobby got very angry.

He just felt that it was deeply unpatriotic.

That evening in the apartment shook him to the core.

[Baldwin] It was a great shock to me that the attorney general, Mr. Robert Kennedy,

did not know that I would have trouble...

convincing my nephew...

to go to Cuba, for example,

to liberate the Cubans

in defense of a government,

which now says it is doing everything it can to...

Which cannot liberate me.

[Belafonte] After that, a week or two may have gone by.

I picked up with Bobby again.

We just talked about it.

I told him what I thought,

that his experience was important for him to have,

because what he heard that evening was the passionate side of black thought.

What white people have to do

is try to find out in their own hearts

why it was necessary to have a nigger in the first place,

because I'm not a nigger, I'm a man.

But if you think I'm a nigger, it means you need it.

The question the white population of this country has got to ask itself,

if I'm not the nigger here...

and if you invented him, you, the white people, invented him,

then you've got to find out why.

One of America's favorite indoor sports is rating our presidents.

What has that boy in the White House done to us?

Not since the days of FDR has the level of attack on a president

seemed quite so heated.

And the Kennedy administration, in our opinion,

has made an error

in not requesting the Congress

to pass civil-rights bills.

The present United States attorney general,

with the approval of the President of the United States,

is far more responsible for the unfortunate racial violence and troubles

we are having throughout this nation,

than even the ruthless leaders,

who are sponsoring and promoting racial unrest.

I don't know why President Kennedy thinks he has such a mandate.

He... he got elected by just a gnat's eyebrow.

[reporter] There's large-scale unemployment.

There are continuing upsets over desegregation.

Then there's Cuba where Mr. Kennedy made his first radical foreign policy decision

and saw it fail.

[reporter] An air and sea invasion of Cuba is crushed in the Bay of Pigs.

[Robert] Hello, Jack.

-God... the poll. -[John] What?

-[Robert] What, you're down to 70%? -When?

-[Robert] Gallup poll. -When was that?

-[Robert] Two days ago. -No, I didn't see it.

[Robert] Yeah, we went 76% to 70%.

[John] I didn't see that poll. Was this in the Post?

[Robert] I read it going up in the plane Wednesday or Thursday.

[John] We've dropped 6% in the a month, have we?

-[Robert] Since January. -Since Congress has been back.

-[Robert] OK. -Righto.

[Smith] Whether the president is doing his job right

is one of the most difficult questions we've had to get judgments on.

The changes in the times have made our political structure no longer viable,

made it unable to produce results

unless there's some terrible crisis to force action.

[reporter] 11:45 a.m.

Men whom the president has summoned begin to arrive at the White House.

Secretary of State, Rusk, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Taylor,

Vice President Johnson,

Defense Secretary McNamara,

CIA Director McCone,

Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

[John] What is this map?

[Martin] It is the Soviet-operated base in Cuba.

[John] San Diego de los Baños is where these missiles are?

[Carter] Yes, sir.

There's good evidence there are back-up missiles for each of the four launchers.

[John] How long would we have before these would be ready to fire?

[Carter] These could be fully operational within two weeks.

[Heuvel] John and Robert Kennedy sat in that room

with the Armed Forces of the United States,

the vice president, Lyndon Johnson,

all of whom thought that we should invade Cuba.

[Taylor] Our recommendation would be to get intelligence.

Look at the target system.

If it really threatens the United States, then take it out with one hard crack.

-[man] You have a direct confrontation. -[Robert] Then what do we do?

[Taylor] Go to general war, if it's in the interest of ours.

[John] You mean nuclear exchange?

[Taylor] Guess you have to.

[Heuvel] This was the closest that the United States

has ever come to nuclear conflagration.

And John and Robert Kennedy stood alone.

[Robert] Assuming that you do survive all of this, what kind of country we are...

We've talked for 15 years that the Russians

would be the first strike against us.

We'd never do that.

Now, in the interest of time, we do that to a small country?

I think it's a hell of a burden to carry.

Talk about difficult negotiations.

There probably was never a more difficult negotiation than that one.

[McNamara] Robert Kennedy had a shrewd sense of diplomacy -

something I really didn't realize or understand,

until I saw it come out at that time.

It was he who brought together State, Defense, CIA, the UN Mission,

organized them to work together

to very quickly bring to his brother the alternatives

that were open to him as president.

[Robert] Khrushchev has offered this deal. I haven't refined it.

But he's offered this arrangement that he will withdraw the bases in Cuba

for assurances that we don't intend to invade Cuba.

The question of the Turkish bases - that's excellent that you brought that up,

that there should be disarmament of the Turkish bases.

[John] He's saying if you'll get yours out of Turkey, we'll get ours out of Cuba.

[reporter] From the Kremlin comes the Soviet response.

The Russian leader says his country

will halt shipments of offensive equipment to Cuba,

and also will dismantle, and take back all missiles in place,

or under construction there.

[reporter] Across the world, goes a long sigh of relief.

With it the world's first nuclear showdown is over.

[Heuvel] Robert Kennedy was the second most powerful person in the United States.

He wasn't just the attorney general and the Justice Department.

It was Robert Kennedy, the brother of the president.

And even more than that, the brother of a president who trusted him totally,

and brought him into every important question that had to be resolved.

[brass band playing]

I draw the line in the dust,

and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny,

and I say segregation now,

segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.

[reporter] Governor George Wallace made a campaign promise

to stand in the doorway himself

to prevent two Negro students from registering at the University of Alabama.

[reporter] Kids carrying anti-Kennedy signs appeared

before the attorney general arrived for a closed conference.

The signs read, "Mississippi murderer", "Kennedy, Kosher and Khrushchev",

"Washington DC, a disgrace to white people."

All of this activity about 15 minutes before the attorney general arrived.

Kennedy then went into the governor's office for a closed conference.

[Wallace] Don't have no objection to our remarks being recorded, do you?

[Robert] Whatever you like, Governor. Up to you.

[Wallace] We might save this conversation for posterity. [laughs]

[Robert] Would it be so horrifying

to have a Negro attend the University of Alabama?

[Wallace] I think it's horrifying

for the federal courts and the central government

to rewrite all the law, and force it upon the people that for which they don't want.

[Robert] Governor, it's not the central government. We're not rewriting the laws.

The federal courts have made a decision, a determination.

[Wallace] The federal courts rewrote the law

on the matter of integration and segregation.

For 100 years, they said we could have segregated schools.

I think integration is bad. I don't think it's good.

You don't have any bona fide integration any place in the country.

You know that. You actually don't have it in Washington.

Everybody's fled to Virginia.

Why don't the government make them officials come back,

and go to school in Washington?

[Robert] I've seen a lot of cities throughout the world, uh, Governor,

that aren't controlled by white people, and they're doing pretty well.

[Wallace] Not controlled by the white people,

but not controlled by niggers.

[Robert] Yes, I've seen a lot of those.

[Wallace] I have nothing against people because of their color.

My children right now are being nursed by colored folk.

I just don't believe in social and educational mixing.

I will never myself submit voluntarily

to any integration of any school system in Alabama.

Susan, the meeting at the White House is not till 5:30.

-[Susan] 5:30? -Yeah.

[Pennebaker] We knew there was going to be a struggle with Governor Wallace,

so we went to see Bobby, and ask if we could make a film about it.

We had made New Frontiers,

which was a film I did in the White House with the president, with Kennedy.

They were very nervous about Alabama,

because they had a couple of people shot in Mississippi.

And I said, "Well, I want to film Alabama."

And Bobby said, "OK." And so we made Crisis.

[Drew] The attorney general is responsible

for enforcing the federal court order

for the entrance of the two students in the University of Alabama.

The attorney general wants to talk to you.

Hey, General.

Uh, uh...

I thought we should try to develop a plan about what's going to happen

when General Graham gets there.

Uh, now I'm not very much in favor of picking the governor up,

and moving him out of the way.

I think it would be much better if we could develop some system,

and had enough people to push him aside, or something.

I just want you all to be sure

that we're not going to let anybody desecrate this university.

Of course, you've got agitators and provocateurs,

who come from outside this state

who themselves will want to stir up some violence,

in order to hurt our cause.

[Robert] And if he still refuses,

then Nick Katzenbach will say we've got this court order,

and we have to go through on legal basis.

He's made the test. This matter should be determined in courts, not out here.

He's had his opportunity, and you should let him go through,

or otherwise we're going to have to take other steps,

because these students are going to attend the University of Alabama.

Then, um, if he still doesn't move, then we'll try to get by him.

-[John] Pushing? -By pushing a little bit.

Or just having somebody stand in front of him.

Try to walk through. There are three doors.

We're going to try to have somebody inside, who will open up one of the doors.

We can just cut... Let's cut this now.

[reporter] To manage his strategy on the scene in Alabama,

Robert Kennedy is sending his deputy attorney general,

Nicholas Katzenbach, to Tuscaloosa.

I have every indication he's not going to step aside up there.

And I have every indication

he will dramatize to that group of reporters and that crowd,

the fact that he has been forcibly removed.

-[Robert] Want to say hello to Kerry? -Yeah.

-[Kerry] Hi, Nick. -Hi, Kerry. How are you, dear?

What are you doing?

Are you at...?

Are you at our house?

No, I'm not out at your house. I am way down in the Southland.

OK, say goodbye.

[mutters]

Say goodbye.

Goodbye! Goodbye.

Hello?

Listen, Nick, you're going to have to play it a little bit by ear.

I mean, almost dismiss him as being rather a second-rate figure for you,

and he's wasting your time.

He's wasting the students' time, and he's caused a big scene up there.

You know, I'd have that sort of tone of voice, don't you think?

Yeah. All right?

Good luck. You'll do well.

[reporter] The University of Alabama campus at Tuscaloosa

is under a tight security guard of state police,

as Governor George Wallace prepares to confront a deputy US attorney.

I've come here to ask you now for an unequivocal assurance

that you will not bar entry to these students,

to Vivian Malone and to James Hood,

and that you will step aside peacefully,

and do your constitutional duty as governor.

I do hereby denounce and forbid this illegal and unwarranted action

by the central government.

Governor Wallace, I take it from that, uh, statement

that, uh, you are going to stand in that door.

[reporter] Governor George Wallace of Alabama has stood in the schoolhouse door.

After the federal officers leave, there's a lull of several hours

while President Kennedy federalizes the Alabama National Guard.

Will you issue the proclamation now and sign it?

The executive order, yeah. Right now?

Okey-dokey.

[reporter] And they move to the campus.

Brigadier General Henry Graham arrives to tell the governor,

"It's my sad duty to ask you to step aside

on orders of the President of the United States."

[reporter] He's coming away from the door. He is stepping aside.

The governor yields to federal authority,

but promises to continue what he terms a constitutional fight.

Five minutes after the governor leaves, James Hood is the first of his race

to become a University of Alabama student.

He is followed into the registrar's office by Vivian Malone.

[John] This nation was founded on the principle that all men are created equal.

[Robert] Have you got a match?

[John] It ought to be possible, therefore,

for American students of any color

to attend any public institution they select

without having to be backed up by troops.

We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and a people.

A great change is at hand,

and our task, our obligation

is to make that revolution, that change

peaceful and constructive for all.

Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence.

Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality.

Next week, I shall ask the Congress of the United States to act,

to make it possible for American citizens of any color

to register and to vote in a free election

without interference or fear of reprisal.

When I first met Robert Kennedy in '63, he said to me...

He said, "John, I now understand the young people.

The students have educated me."

And he went on to say, "We're going to bring justice to this country."

The method that is being used most widely in the United States at the present time

to deny an individual the right to vote, who happens to be a Negro,

are these literacy tests.

If a person has completed the sixth grade, and hasn't learned to read and write

that they ought not to be allowed to vote, and I say--

OK, do you have a school system in North Carolina

that you complete the sixth grade, and you can't read or write?

Then I think we should do something.

The federal government has a responsibility to all of our citizens

to, uh, make sure that they have the right to exercise their, uh, franchise,

when it's being denied to them,

because of the fact that they happen to be of Negro race.

He didn't mind getting into a battle where victory wasn't assured.

But he was prepared to fight.

I would hope you would join with us in sponsoring this legislation

to remedy this situation, Mr. Chairman.

[chairman] I love the Constitution too much to do so.

Well, I love the Constitution, also, Mr. Chairman.

But this doesn't violate the Constitution.

[Belafonte] The March on Washington DC was America at its best.

It was a great day.

And out of it emerged a very devastating, but magnificent speech

that Dr. King delivered.

"I have a dream."

And the other speaker was a young man by the name of John Lewis.

He gave a hell of a speech.

I appeal to all of you to get in this great revolution

that is sweeping this nation.

Get in and stay in the streets

of every city, every village and hamlet of this nation,

until true freedom comes.

We must get in this revolution and complete the revolution,

in the Delta of Mississippi and Southwest Georgia,

in the black belt of Alabama, in Harlem,

in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia,

and all over this nation the black masses are on the march for jobs and freedom.

[crowd cheering]

[Lewis] Robert Kennedy, along with his brother, President Kennedy,

responded to pressure.

They responded to the resistance.

He almost became a crusader...

for civil rights and social justice.

[Belafonte] We knew if there was going to be an opportunity for us

to get the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act,

much of it was ignited by what the Kennedys had done.

[indistinct chatter]

[music drowns speech]

[reporter] A flash from Dallas.

President Kennedy is dead of bullet wounds.

This is the latest information we have from Dallas.

Of course, standing by to give you all available information as it comes to us.

I will repeat, with the greatest regret, this flash.

Two priests who were with President Kennedy

say he has died of bullet wounds.

[music drowns speech]

[reporter] President Kennedy was murdered in Dallas, Texas.

Lyndon Johnson is President of the United States.

He took the oath of office in a jet airplane,

as he was coming back to Washington.

Here was the scene at Andrews Air Force Base a few minutes ago.

[Gallagher] When I got to the airport,

and I looked over in the corner there,

by an old truck, there was somebody walking up and down.

I walked over.

It was Bobby Kennedy by himself.

He was crying.

And I walked over. I don't know what I said, you know.

I imagine saying, "Bob, we're all crying.

We're all crying. The world is crying."

[female reporter] Behind the casket is Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy.

To her right is her brother-in-law, the attorney general, Robert Kennedy.

They are helping her down.

This is a sad time for all people.

We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed.

I know that the world shares the sorrow

that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear.