1 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:35,100 No American in this century has ever been so likely to be president as Robert 2 00:01:35,100 --> 00:01:36,100 Francis Kennedy. 3 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:39,720 Ladies and gentlemen, please move back to the sidewalk. 4 00:01:39,980 --> 00:01:41,560 Allow the motorcade to pass. 5 00:01:41,780 --> 00:01:43,680 Please move back to the sidewalk. 6 00:01:45,140 --> 00:01:50,740 Here in California, the caravan provided the love feast Kennedy has come to 7 00:01:50,740 --> 00:01:51,740 expect. 8 00:01:59,980 --> 00:02:05,300 It happened again, as in city after city, a mob scene and a traffic jam 9 00:02:05,300 --> 00:02:06,300 much of downtown. 10 00:02:10,860 --> 00:02:13,480 In California, it was unreal. 11 00:02:13,700 --> 00:02:18,340 They had to hold him in the car because people were pulling all sides. 12 00:02:20,740 --> 00:02:25,460 He was touched, trapped, and at one point torn from his car, wrenching the 13 00:02:25,460 --> 00:02:27,320 of the man who usually holds him erect. 14 00:02:37,740 --> 00:02:43,300 He was seen as a young, revolutionary, radical figure who represents change. 15 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:48,160 He has spoken out often on the three issues which inflame most Americans most 16 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:48,879 the time. 17 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:51,060 Vietnam, civil rights, and poverty. 18 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:54,880 I think we can make a major difference in the United States for all of our 19 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:57,040 people and for peace all over the rest of the world. 20 00:02:59,620 --> 00:03:04,020 And yet no politician engenders such extremes of devotion and distrust. 21 00:03:04,430 --> 00:03:09,150 I did not really support Robert Kennedy early on because I thought he was just a 22 00:03:09,150 --> 00:03:11,710 young rich kid, you know, trying to make it in politics. 23 00:03:12,170 --> 00:03:17,870 I think he's trying to ride on his father's fortune and his brother's fame. 24 00:03:18,250 --> 00:03:22,670 The John Kennedy haters of the early 60s, some Southerners, businessmen, and 25 00:03:22,670 --> 00:03:26,750 conservative suburbanites, have now become the Bobby haters of the late 60s. 26 00:03:27,290 --> 00:03:29,490 My image of him was not very strong. 27 00:03:30,030 --> 00:03:33,990 I had remembered him from the Justice Department and the taping of Martin 28 00:03:33,990 --> 00:03:39,150 King. In certain cases, wiretapping, listening in on a telephone conversation 29 00:03:39,150 --> 00:03:40,390 can be most helpful. 30 00:03:40,810 --> 00:03:45,630 In the early days, President Kennedy and his brother, Robert Kennedy, did not 31 00:03:45,630 --> 00:03:49,210 want to appear to be moving too fast for civil rights. 32 00:03:49,590 --> 00:03:53,530 As far as Martin Luther King is concerned, we called for a cooling off 33 00:03:53,670 --> 00:03:58,630 People have gone into the streets and created disorders without any purpose. 34 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:03,340 But he saw people suffering that have changed him. 35 00:04:04,460 --> 00:04:06,500 He fell in love with people. 36 00:04:09,380 --> 00:04:14,460 He turned into one of the most sincere persons involved in human values and 37 00:04:14,460 --> 00:04:16,899 trying to do the right thing, trying to do justice. 38 00:04:46,730 --> 00:04:51,190 The campaign in California was really wonderful. The vote count was beginning 39 00:04:51,190 --> 00:04:52,190 look very good. 40 00:04:53,550 --> 00:04:58,490 Then on the last day of the campaign, we lost him. 41 00:05:05,070 --> 00:05:09,830 This photograph shows Robert Kennedy and me lying on the floor. 42 00:05:12,630 --> 00:05:15,810 It also shows a friend of mine, Cap Hardy, 43 00:05:16,540 --> 00:05:21,780 leaning over me and putting one of the Kennedy campaign hats over my face 44 00:05:21,780 --> 00:05:23,040 because he thought I was dead. 45 00:05:25,380 --> 00:05:30,540 There were five people besides Bob shot that night. I was the first one hit in 46 00:05:30,540 --> 00:05:31,960 the center of my forehead. 47 00:05:34,860 --> 00:05:41,640 Losing Robert Kennedy was just difficult to live with because he provided so 48 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:42,640 much hope for us. 49 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:49,560 I first got involved with Bob Kennedy in the early 60s. 50 00:05:49,940 --> 00:05:54,720 I was working at the time for the United Oil Workers Union on civil rights, on 51 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:56,180 workers' rights, and so forth. 52 00:05:57,100 --> 00:06:02,920 I've got major files in the storeroom over here to deal with the labor 53 00:06:02,980 --> 00:06:08,340 peace movements, and farm workers' movements, but mostly dealing with the 54 00:06:08,340 --> 00:06:09,340 Kennedy case. 55 00:06:16,010 --> 00:06:21,510 This is a great event. Robert Kennedy flew in for the end of Cesar Chavez's 23 56 00:06:21,510 --> 00:06:22,830 -day fast. 57 00:06:23,170 --> 00:06:24,170 There I am. 58 00:06:24,970 --> 00:06:30,470 In 1968, I became a part of Bob's campaign for president. I was vice 59 00:06:30,470 --> 00:06:37,470 for labor in the late 60s. A lot of forces were coming together through the 60 00:06:37,470 --> 00:06:41,030 anti -war movement, through the labor movement, the student movement, the war 61 00:06:41,030 --> 00:06:42,030 poverty. 62 00:06:42,230 --> 00:06:44,270 It was just a very lively... 63 00:06:44,670 --> 00:06:49,170 dynamic period and and fortunately we had bob kennedy help lead us 64 00:06:49,170 --> 00:06:56,170 robert francis kennedy was born on november 20 1925 65 00:06:56,170 --> 00:07:01,770 in brookline massachusetts one of a family of four boys and five girls born 66 00:07:01,770 --> 00:07:06,410 rose and joseph patrick kennedy his father a second generation immigrant 67 00:07:06,410 --> 00:07:10,330 had become boston's youngest bank president and went on to amass a fortune 68 00:07:10,330 --> 00:07:12,430 become the american ambassador to great britain 69 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:21,400 You grew up knowing that you would never have to worry too much about money. Did 70 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:24,620 that mean you could put emphasis upon something else? I think so. Of course, 71 00:07:24,620 --> 00:07:27,860 it's a great advantage. I mean, obviously, it was stressed in our family 72 00:07:27,860 --> 00:07:32,940 because we had these tremendous advantages, which other people do not 73 00:07:32,940 --> 00:07:35,460 in turn, we had a responsibility to others. 74 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:39,500 You have a reputation for toughness, for being a fighter, that your father 75 00:07:39,500 --> 00:07:42,020 offered a bit of competition in the family. 76 00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:43,680 Yes, family life is competitive. 77 00:07:44,380 --> 00:07:47,700 Well, I was number seven, so that was quite far down. And we were just trying 78 00:07:47,700 --> 00:07:48,700 survive. 79 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:53,900 I first met Robert Kennedy when he came to Milton Academy. 80 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:57,220 He loved playing football. 81 00:07:58,060 --> 00:08:01,120 Winning was important to him. You win or you're nobody. 82 00:08:01,580 --> 00:08:05,020 He fought hard, but he was very fair -minded. 83 00:08:05,500 --> 00:08:10,500 Any time there was bullying, he would take the side of the underdog. 84 00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:15,540 Well, I think part of this sense of right and wrong came from being 85 00:08:15,540 --> 00:08:16,540 was very religious. 86 00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:22,260 Bobby was the runt of the litter, so he had a lot to prove to himself and to his 87 00:08:22,260 --> 00:08:27,520 father. At Harvard, playing with a fractured right leg in a cast, Bob 88 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:31,220 letter against Yale, something none of his brothers had done before him. 89 00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:36,039 Grab your partner, grab your gal, and rock. 90 00:08:37,799 --> 00:08:39,720 Rock, rock, rock, rock, everybody. 91 00:08:40,020 --> 00:08:44,120 Rock, rock, rock, rock, everybody. Rock, rock, rock, rock, everybody. 92 00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:46,320 You rock it and you rock it and you rock it around. 93 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:51,700 Interrupting his college education to serve in the Navy during World War II, 94 00:08:51,700 --> 00:08:54,280 returned to earn a law degree from the University of Virginia. 95 00:08:54,540 --> 00:08:58,940 Bob Kennedy was once asked what was the most important decision of his life. His 96 00:08:58,940 --> 00:09:00,400 answer? Marrying Ethel. 97 00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:01,760 Rock, everybody. 98 00:09:01,980 --> 00:09:04,000 You rock it and you rock it and you rock it around. 99 00:09:07,339 --> 00:09:13,100 Senator, yours is a quite exceptionally political famine. Was it inevitable that 100 00:09:13,100 --> 00:09:15,040 you would enter some form of politics? 101 00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:18,860 I think I would have eventually ended up somewhere in politics or government. We 102 00:09:18,860 --> 00:09:20,440 were brought up in that kind of an atmosphere. 103 00:09:20,740 --> 00:09:24,940 My grandfather was mayor of Boston and he was a congressman from Boston. And 104 00:09:24,940 --> 00:09:27,020 then, of course, my father was involved in politics and government. 105 00:09:27,220 --> 00:09:30,440 And my oldest brother, Joe, before he was killed, was in government. 106 00:09:30,660 --> 00:09:33,480 And then, of course, after the war, my brother Jack was in. 107 00:09:33,900 --> 00:09:36,880 Politics and government, and I was involved in running his campaign. 108 00:09:37,580 --> 00:09:41,340 The American people have spoken with a resounding voice at the polls. 109 00:09:41,740 --> 00:09:43,940 General Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected. 110 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:46,140 The Republican Party is back in power. 111 00:09:49,560 --> 00:09:54,520 In Massachusetts' Senate race, Representative John F. Kennedy scores 112 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:56,040 few major Democratic victories. 113 00:09:56,420 --> 00:10:00,660 The Kennedy magic worked. Kennedy put on a blistering campaign which produced a 114 00:10:00,660 --> 00:10:01,660 major political upset. 115 00:10:02,300 --> 00:10:06,120 My brother Bobby, who managed the campaign, perhaps he could give us some 116 00:10:06,220 --> 00:10:08,840 more up -to -date, of what the final figures were. 117 00:10:09,140 --> 00:10:14,200 I think that from what we got up to about 20 minutes ago, we were winning by 118 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:15,300 about 70 ,000. 119 00:10:15,540 --> 00:10:18,080 Well, I'm sure glad it's over, aren't you, Bobby? I am glad. 120 00:10:18,300 --> 00:10:19,300 Okay. 121 00:10:33,710 --> 00:10:39,970 had great admiration for Jack Kennedy. He was a hero in World War II, and we 122 00:10:39,970 --> 00:10:40,970 became friends. 123 00:10:41,270 --> 00:10:43,970 But I was always ambivalent about Bobby. 124 00:10:44,390 --> 00:10:49,050 I liked him very much as a person. In fact, I played tennis over at his house. 125 00:10:49,090 --> 00:10:50,250 We got to laugh together. 126 00:10:50,730 --> 00:10:54,730 He had a great family. His wife, Ethel, a wonderful woman. 127 00:10:55,810 --> 00:10:59,690 But it seemed to me that Bobby Kennedy, he was two people. 128 00:11:00,680 --> 00:11:04,380 The other side of Bobby was a very determined young man. 129 00:11:04,620 --> 00:11:10,440 He was very ambitious, aggressive, very sharp elbows for anybody in his way. 130 00:11:11,220 --> 00:11:12,560 He was a young man. 131 00:11:12,860 --> 00:11:17,440 Bobby got the job as a lawyer in facing communists with that terrible man, Joe 132 00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:21,940 McCarthy. He has traveled far, interviewed many, terrorized some. 133 00:11:22,300 --> 00:11:25,540 There are communists working in our defense plants. 134 00:11:26,100 --> 00:11:29,600 There are communists being left unmolested in our government. 135 00:11:29,980 --> 00:11:35,080 The question is, will you give the FBI any information that you may have about 136 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:36,760 members of the communist conspiracy? 137 00:11:37,540 --> 00:11:41,720 On that question, I am going to refuse to answer your question. Bobby was nuts 138 00:11:41,720 --> 00:11:45,300 on the communists. There was an insanity about communists in those days. 139 00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:51,440 Then he got the job with the McClellan Committee going after union leaders and 140 00:11:51,440 --> 00:11:53,360 their connection with organized crime. 141 00:11:53,960 --> 00:11:58,020 Here's the committee's attorney questioning Teamster union leader Jim 142 00:11:58,200 --> 00:11:59,200 Did you say? 143 00:11:59,519 --> 00:12:01,380 At SOB, I'll break his back. 144 00:12:01,680 --> 00:12:02,800 Who? You. 145 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:05,140 I'll break it to who? To anyone. 146 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:06,780 Did you make that statement? 147 00:12:07,060 --> 00:12:10,200 You can't remember three months ago whether Johnny Deal was in your room? 148 00:12:10,200 --> 00:12:13,760 man who's under indictment for throwing acid in Victor Rizal's eye? You can't 149 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:16,660 remember what you talked about, and you can't remember whether he was in your 150 00:12:16,660 --> 00:12:19,600 room? It wasn't a event of anything of any importance, Mr. Kennedy, and I can't 151 00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:20,579 recall it. 152 00:12:20,580 --> 00:12:26,140 And he saw the power and publicity in going after people that the McClellan 153 00:12:26,140 --> 00:12:27,140 Committee had. 154 00:12:27,660 --> 00:12:28,680 Bob, tell me this. 155 00:12:29,050 --> 00:12:32,790 Do you think the television coverage of the hearings has some real value? I 156 00:12:32,790 --> 00:12:34,290 think it's been terrific, tremendous. 157 00:12:34,730 --> 00:12:38,210 Mrs. Kennedy, are the youngsters aware of the fact that their father has been 158 00:12:38,210 --> 00:12:40,030 quite a television personality this summer? 159 00:12:40,390 --> 00:12:45,830 Well, they are, Mr. Murrow. I think this is never more true than when one day 160 00:12:45,830 --> 00:12:48,710 the hearings ran over 15 minutes into Mickey Mouse. 161 00:12:48,970 --> 00:12:51,790 The children were very displeased with their father that night. 162 00:12:52,210 --> 00:12:54,030 The people who watched the... 163 00:12:54,300 --> 00:12:58,040 Jimmy Hoffa hearings since that time. People have written to us that they saw 164 00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:01,940 them on television and have made suggestions to us as to what leads we 165 00:13:01,940 --> 00:13:02,759 follow up. 166 00:13:02,760 --> 00:13:05,480 I think that was a little scary part of Bobby. 167 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:11,720 Jack Kennedy jokingly said, you know, Neil, I love Bobby. He's my brother and 168 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:12,720 great guy. 169 00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:14,460 He said, but he's a cop at heart. 170 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:19,020 And at the end of the day, if he didn't have somebody to arrest, I think he'd 171 00:13:19,020 --> 00:13:19,859 arrest Rose. 172 00:13:19,860 --> 00:13:22,480 That was a joke, but it really summed it up, too. 173 00:13:31,470 --> 00:13:35,090 These are the people of Wisconsin, where there's going to be a presidential 174 00:13:35,090 --> 00:13:36,530 primary next Tuesday. 175 00:13:36,810 --> 00:13:41,070 Here into Wisconsin have come Jack Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. From a 176 00:13:41,090 --> 00:13:43,130 well -staffed headquarters in downtown Milwaukee, 177 00:13:43,890 --> 00:13:47,050 Bobby Kennedy directs the most skillful team of political operators. 178 00:13:47,350 --> 00:13:51,830 They are trying for a knockout, a victory that will entirely eliminate 179 00:13:53,470 --> 00:13:56,510 Bobby was at his best as a campaign manager. 180 00:13:56,990 --> 00:13:59,350 His father taught him never to come in second. 181 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:01,980 And he loved his brother dearly. 182 00:14:02,220 --> 00:14:03,560 He wanted this for him. 183 00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:08,720 I think he's got a considerable amount of strength around the country, starting 184 00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:12,580 in New England, but also in the Midwest and in the Rocky Mountain states. 185 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:15,940 But I think that a lot of it's going to depend on how well he does in the 186 00:14:15,940 --> 00:14:16,940 primaries. 187 00:14:17,380 --> 00:14:22,580 To me, the Kennedys represented a new generation and a great change in the 188 00:14:22,580 --> 00:14:23,580 American scene. 189 00:14:23,700 --> 00:14:24,700 There is a new generation. 190 00:14:25,230 --> 00:14:28,590 going to take over here in the United States, and this country is going to 191 00:14:28,590 --> 00:14:31,730 ahead. I think that we're going to have to be strong enough here in the United 192 00:14:31,730 --> 00:14:33,570 States if we're going to preserve the peace. 193 00:14:34,410 --> 00:14:35,870 We're not going to stand still. 194 00:14:36,230 --> 00:14:39,990 We're going to face up to our problems and reestablish our prestige and our 195 00:14:39,990 --> 00:14:42,910 position in the world. And that's what Senator Kennedy is going to do when he's 196 00:14:42,910 --> 00:14:43,990 elected President of the United States. 197 00:14:50,700 --> 00:14:55,160 The self -confidence of the Kennedys came from many sources, but certainly a 198 00:14:55,160 --> 00:15:00,120 primary source was the family. I mean, they were very close at every level and 199 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:01,780 always sustaining one another. 200 00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:06,500 The Kennedy women arrived, first Ethel, then the Senator's sisters. 201 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:11,000 I sort of feel like an independent merchant competing against a chain store 202 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:12,540 I compete with the Kennedy family. 203 00:15:13,620 --> 00:15:16,560 People often ask me, now which Kennedy are you? 204 00:15:16,780 --> 00:15:17,780 My brother Jack. 205 00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:19,420 People have not... 206 00:15:20,030 --> 00:15:23,330 even sure about which Kennedy he is. He was coming up here about three months 207 00:15:23,330 --> 00:15:26,170 ago to decide whether he'd go in the Wisconsin primary. 208 00:15:26,470 --> 00:15:29,070 And he sat on an airplane next to a little old lady. It was her first 209 00:15:29,410 --> 00:15:33,110 And she looked up at him and she said, you're one of the Kennedy boys, aren't 210 00:15:33,110 --> 00:15:38,510 you? And he said, yes. I think you've done a wonderful job as counsel for the 211 00:15:38,510 --> 00:15:39,510 Senate Rackets Committee. 212 00:15:40,010 --> 00:15:42,230 And Jack said, well, that's not me. That's my brother. 213 00:15:42,750 --> 00:15:45,910 So then the lady said, but I think those seven beautiful children you have, it's 214 00:15:45,910 --> 00:15:46,910 just wonderful. 215 00:15:47,020 --> 00:15:49,820 And Jack said, well, that's not me, that's my brother. 216 00:15:50,220 --> 00:15:53,400 So finally she said, well, then tell your brother I wish him all the luck in 217 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:55,400 world in his bid for the presidential nominee. 218 00:15:55,940 --> 00:15:57,940 He said, no, no, no, that's me, that's me. 219 00:15:58,340 --> 00:16:04,760 We will be pleased to have the privilege of seeing Bob Kennedy, 220 00:16:05,140 --> 00:16:06,740 Senator Kennedy's son. 221 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:14,160 Thank you very much. I'm sorry that my mother couldn't be here tonight. 222 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:23,480 And my sister Eunice, and my sister Jean, my 223 00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:28,300 brother -in -law Peter Lawford, or my brother Teddy, or my cousin Joe Gargan, 224 00:16:28,300 --> 00:16:33,060 cousin... So you're going to have to settle with me. Thank you very much. 225 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:42,860 Great appreciation to my brother Bobby, who has directed all our primary 226 00:16:42,860 --> 00:16:45,400 campaigns and the organization in all of them. 227 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:48,940 as he did in my campaign for the Senate in 1952. 228 00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:51,640 And, of course, he has been the most essential figure. 229 00:17:00,140 --> 00:17:03,880 We've just arrived in Los Angeles, the city seething with convention 230 00:17:04,220 --> 00:17:08,880 There seems to be no doubt Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts is far and away 231 00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:09,960 in the lead. 232 00:17:10,349 --> 00:17:11,829 for the Democratic nomination. 233 00:17:12,190 --> 00:17:17,030 However, there are many supporters of Stevenson and Johnson who still are 234 00:17:17,030 --> 00:17:18,750 convinced that he will be stopped. 235 00:17:22,930 --> 00:17:25,050 That was at the 1960 convention. 236 00:17:25,609 --> 00:17:30,450 We felt that there was the opportunity to create a world where democracy would 237 00:17:30,450 --> 00:17:32,890 prevail and where social justice would be an objective. 238 00:17:38,670 --> 00:17:43,430 is the great senator from the state of Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy. 239 00:17:45,710 --> 00:17:50,990 I worked with Bob Kennedy in the 1960 convention to help shift Stevenson 240 00:17:50,990 --> 00:17:52,610 delegates over to Jack Kennedy. 241 00:17:52,870 --> 00:17:56,750 I really connected with Bob. I could see how effective he was. 242 00:17:57,090 --> 00:18:01,990 Bobby Kennedy and Abe Ribicoff, the Kennedy floor leaders, please urge 243 00:18:01,990 --> 00:18:03,050 for individual votes. 244 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:08,000 Nevertheless, some of the bosses of the Democratic Party thought there was no 245 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:10,220 doubt Lenny Johnson was going to win this nomination. 246 00:18:11,100 --> 00:18:15,740 Johnson was a major figure in the U .S. Senate and the Democratic Party, which 247 00:18:15,740 --> 00:18:19,180 was in large measure still controlled by Southern political forces. 248 00:18:19,700 --> 00:18:23,820 Senator, would you agree with Senator Kennedy who said that he thought you 249 00:18:23,820 --> 00:18:27,320 his chief opposition because you had more delegates than anybody else? 250 00:18:28,300 --> 00:18:31,480 Well, I have great respect for Senator Kennedy. 251 00:18:32,490 --> 00:18:36,110 And maybe he has more information on the delegates I have than I do. 252 00:18:37,170 --> 00:18:42,110 During four hours of nominations and demonstrations, the final struggle for 253 00:18:42,110 --> 00:18:43,110 votes goes on. 254 00:18:43,490 --> 00:18:46,710 Senator Kennedy, 104 and a half. 255 00:18:47,030 --> 00:18:51,630 Wyoming vote will make majority to Senator Kennedy. 256 00:18:55,110 --> 00:19:00,070 Governors, mayors, senators, bosses gather to form a protective escort for 257 00:19:00,070 --> 00:19:01,070 young new leader. 258 00:19:01,290 --> 00:19:04,350 Tomorrow, in an all -day tussle, he must choose a vice president. 259 00:19:05,350 --> 00:19:08,650 John Kennedy offered the vice presidency to Wendy Johnson. 260 00:19:09,330 --> 00:19:11,310 It was a stunning blow to everybody. 261 00:19:11,710 --> 00:19:17,230 He has met with Senator Johnson for about 15, 20 minutes in Senator 262 00:19:17,230 --> 00:19:19,450 suite. Bobby was surprised, too. 263 00:19:19,910 --> 00:19:23,570 Bobby certainly was not for Johnson's nomination as vice president. 264 00:19:24,530 --> 00:19:29,530 If you could think of two different personalities in the context of politics 265 00:19:29,530 --> 00:19:30,530 public life, 266 00:19:31,050 --> 00:19:36,570 They were, I mean, Johnson, the glad -hander, the bully, the pusher, getting 267 00:19:36,570 --> 00:19:40,870 down, whispering in your ear, calling you up at all hours of the day or night. 268 00:19:41,470 --> 00:19:43,170 They just didn't like each other. 269 00:19:43,510 --> 00:19:47,630 So Bobby went to see him and say, you know, did you really mean it? Are you 270 00:19:47,630 --> 00:19:48,730 really accepting it? 271 00:19:49,110 --> 00:19:53,410 It's got a lot of dangers to it. Aren't you better off staying in the Senate and 272 00:19:53,410 --> 00:19:53,989 all of that? 273 00:19:53,990 --> 00:19:56,270 But Johnson knew Bobby didn't like him. 274 00:19:57,290 --> 00:19:58,850 Johnson never forgave that. 275 00:20:00,590 --> 00:20:04,590 There's Senator Kennedy now, Senator Johnson next to him, being photographed 276 00:20:04,590 --> 00:20:06,590 together for the first time. This is the ticket. 277 00:20:06,970 --> 00:20:11,830 We will carry the fight to the people in the fall, and we shall win. 278 00:20:15,770 --> 00:20:19,910 Things are starting to pop as the candidates hit the presidential trail. 279 00:20:22,330 --> 00:20:26,030 I think that we have a great deal of work. I think that the work on 280 00:20:26,030 --> 00:20:27,250 will be extremely helpful. 281 00:20:27,850 --> 00:20:33,330 Getting out the vote might very well be the key to victory here on November 8th. 282 00:20:33,610 --> 00:20:38,450 Approximately 3 ,600 ,000 people in the state of New York were unregistered. 283 00:20:38,450 --> 00:20:41,390 Most of these people would vote Democratic if they were put on the 284 00:20:42,370 --> 00:20:46,130 I believe there's a real trend on now for Senator Kennedy and the Democratic 285 00:20:46,130 --> 00:20:47,950 Party. We are extremely encouraged. 286 00:20:50,550 --> 00:20:52,950 While Nixon slugs it out with Kennedy... 287 00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:57,460 His vice -presidential mate, Henry Cabot Lodge, makes headlines with an appeal 288 00:20:57,460 --> 00:21:01,100 for the Negro votes, critical in carrying big northern status. 289 00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:05,020 My opinion is that there ought to be a Negro on the cabinet, and I'll go 290 00:21:05,020 --> 00:21:08,060 further. I'll make this prediction that if Nixon was elected, there will be a 291 00:21:08,060 --> 00:21:09,180 qualified Negro on the cabinet. 292 00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:15,260 The country's dance with race has been very difficult. 293 00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:20,880 The Kennedys were in the middle of a transitional moment for America. 294 00:21:22,510 --> 00:21:27,190 The most important black icon, Jackie Robinson, had turned against the 295 00:21:27,190 --> 00:21:31,550 Democratic Party and became committed to the Republican cause. 296 00:21:32,350 --> 00:21:38,170 So the Democrats looked for black public figures, and I was targeted. 297 00:21:38,430 --> 00:21:40,370 My career was on the ascendancy. 298 00:21:40,710 --> 00:21:45,190 Well, to have his family needed money, said he didn't have but a dime. 299 00:21:45,790 --> 00:21:49,950 If you wait till the red sun goes down, I'll get it from the men in the mine, 300 00:21:49,990 --> 00:21:52,450 Lord, Lord, get it from the men in the mine. 301 00:21:52,770 --> 00:21:56,810 I'll get it from the men in the mine, Lord, Lord, I'll get it from the men in 302 00:21:56,810 --> 00:21:57,709 the mine. 303 00:21:57,710 --> 00:22:03,930 I did not get the sense that the Kennedys were as deeply caught up in the 304 00:22:03,930 --> 00:22:07,890 conversation of civil rights and black rights as they should have been. 305 00:22:08,490 --> 00:22:13,590 Also, my first knowledge of Bobby Kennedy was when he had spent time with 306 00:22:13,590 --> 00:22:14,590 McCarthy. 307 00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:18,440 And those of us who were very much involved in the movement were constantly 308 00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:21,420 being accused of being communist sympathizers. 309 00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:29,380 So in the beginning, Bobby looked at us rather suspiciously, and the 310 00:22:29,380 --> 00:22:30,500 feelings were reciprocal. 311 00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:37,980 When John came to me, I concluded that he didn't know very much, and I told him 312 00:22:37,980 --> 00:22:42,740 so. And before I could endorse him, I would have to come to grips with how he 313 00:22:42,740 --> 00:22:47,960 felt about this young new force on the horizon named Martin Luther King Jr. 314 00:22:49,340 --> 00:22:53,780 Martin Luther King is arrested in Atlanta at a restaurant sit -in, then 315 00:22:53,780 --> 00:22:54,960 sentenced to hard labor. 316 00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:57,260 Negro leaders fear for his life. 317 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:04,400 King had been arrested, but John Kennedy, he didn't say much on the 318 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:07,900 Kennedy wanted to do something, to say something. 319 00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:13,900 But he knew it might endanger his chance of holding the majority of the white 320 00:23:13,900 --> 00:23:16,740 opinion in the South and carrying the South in the election. 321 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:22,220 And the idea came to me and others, why shouldn't he just call Mrs. King? 322 00:23:22,420 --> 00:23:27,320 She was very anxious. Why can't Kennedy at least just call her and say, we're 323 00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:31,720 working at it, we're going to get him out, you have my sympathy, a personal 324 00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:32,699 direct act. 325 00:23:32,700 --> 00:23:35,100 And Kennedy said, that's a wonderful idea. 326 00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:37,580 Dialed her, talked to her. 327 00:23:38,250 --> 00:23:43,130 Then later in the morning, he started telling his strategist, and Robert 328 00:23:43,130 --> 00:23:44,130 gave us hell. 329 00:23:44,650 --> 00:23:50,170 And I've never been chewed out by anybody as angrily as I was by Robert 330 00:23:50,650 --> 00:23:54,530 He said, close down your civil rights section. You've probably lost the 331 00:23:54,530 --> 00:23:58,370 election. We had three southern governors tell us that if you support 332 00:23:58,370 --> 00:24:03,470 Khrushchev, Castro, or Martin Luther King, we're going to throw our votes to 333 00:24:03,470 --> 00:24:04,470 Nixon. 334 00:24:05,030 --> 00:24:06,910 And then that very night, 335 00:24:07,870 --> 00:24:12,190 Robert Kennedy called the judge in Georgia to get King out of jail. 336 00:24:12,770 --> 00:24:17,530 And we asked Bob Kennedy, you know, after you were so angry, why did you do 337 00:24:17,530 --> 00:24:21,010 that? And he said, well, as I went up to New York on the plane and thought about 338 00:24:21,010 --> 00:24:26,090 it and King in jail with that sentence and screwing up our politics in this 339 00:24:26,090 --> 00:24:30,490 country and maybe losing the election for my brother, I got so mad that I got 340 00:24:30,490 --> 00:24:31,550 that judge on the phone. 341 00:24:33,330 --> 00:24:37,050 Then we woke up one day and found out that Bobby intervened. 342 00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:39,580 with the Georgia officials. 343 00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:43,240 Next day, the weight of Kennedy's opinion is felt in Georgia. 344 00:24:43,540 --> 00:24:45,600 King is released safe on bail. 345 00:24:45,820 --> 00:24:49,220 As word spreads, Negro votes shift to Kennedy. 346 00:24:50,300 --> 00:24:55,660 I don't know the details of it, but naturally I'm very happy to know of 347 00:24:55,660 --> 00:25:01,140 Kennedy's concern and all that he did to make this possible. 348 00:25:01,900 --> 00:25:06,300 I might say that there are no political implications here. I'm sure that the 349 00:25:06,300 --> 00:25:12,440 senator did it because of his real concern and his humanitarian 350 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:13,440 bent. 351 00:25:14,500 --> 00:25:18,480 That finally won many of us over to the Democrats. 352 00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:23,480 There are many Negroes in America who still do not have the right to vote. 353 00:25:24,060 --> 00:25:25,460 There are many of us who do. 354 00:25:26,120 --> 00:25:28,200 And I think that we should use that right. 355 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:30,980 I'm voting for Senator Jack Kennedy. 356 00:25:31,630 --> 00:25:32,630 How about you? 357 00:25:37,130 --> 00:25:42,550 A record number of Americans, upwards of 67 million, go to the polls to elect 358 00:25:42,550 --> 00:25:44,870 the 35th president of the United States. 359 00:25:45,170 --> 00:25:49,030 At his Hyannisport, Massachusetts residence, the Democratic candidate and 360 00:25:49,030 --> 00:25:50,810 wife stoically waited out the return. 361 00:25:53,190 --> 00:25:57,570 And now begins the time of waiting as dusk falls over Hyannisport. 362 00:25:58,110 --> 00:26:01,150 The atmosphere at headquarters in Bobby Kennedy's cottage grows tense. 363 00:26:01,690 --> 00:26:03,130 This will be no sweep. 364 00:26:03,510 --> 00:26:05,230 This is to be touch and go. 365 00:26:05,990 --> 00:26:08,530 Nixon leads by a shade in popular votes. 366 00:26:08,730 --> 00:26:14,470 He also holds an early lead in states with 173 of the 269 electoral votes 367 00:26:14,470 --> 00:26:15,550 to make a man president. 368 00:26:15,970 --> 00:26:20,350 Minute after minute, hour after hour, the Kennedys wait for decision on these 369 00:26:20,350 --> 00:26:21,350 hair -breadth races. 370 00:26:21,430 --> 00:26:22,710 And none comes. 371 00:26:23,830 --> 00:26:28,360 Shortly after 3 in the morning East Coast time, The networks bring the 372 00:26:28,360 --> 00:26:29,700 the picture of the vice president. 373 00:26:30,220 --> 00:26:36,380 While there are still some results still to come in, if the present trend 374 00:26:36,380 --> 00:26:38,320 continues, Mr. 375 00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:42,920 Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, will be the next president of the United States. 376 00:26:48,340 --> 00:26:54,440 Now my wife and I prepare for a new administration and for a new baby. Thank 377 00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:55,440 you. 378 00:26:57,290 --> 00:27:03,170 John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the long campaign comes to an end, a successful 379 00:27:03,170 --> 00:27:09,030 him, despite the fact that the popular vote is a very, very narrow affair. 380 00:27:10,250 --> 00:27:13,310 Mr. Kennedy, would you have a place in a Kennedy administration? 381 00:27:13,890 --> 00:27:18,330 Well, nothing's been said to me, and I don't think I would, because of the 382 00:27:18,330 --> 00:27:21,730 reason I think that it's virtually impossible in view of our relationship. 383 00:27:23,310 --> 00:27:24,310 Nepotism. 384 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:32,980 Look tough, believe it or not. 385 00:27:34,420 --> 00:27:36,900 But Jack was calm. 386 00:27:38,340 --> 00:27:44,940 And Jack said, I've got my 387 00:27:44,940 --> 00:27:46,600 Bobby. 388 00:27:50,260 --> 00:27:53,340 My Bobby. 389 00:28:01,770 --> 00:28:06,910 Bobby played cool. 390 00:28:11,730 --> 00:28:14,710 My father was strongly in favor of my being Attorney General. 391 00:28:14,930 --> 00:28:19,790 I think it just eventually came down to just the fact that President Kennedy 392 00:28:19,790 --> 00:28:24,130 felt that it might be nice to have somebody around that he could discuss 393 00:28:24,130 --> 00:28:26,390 with. For that reason, I did it. 394 00:28:27,150 --> 00:28:28,690 He has proven his ability. 395 00:28:29,580 --> 00:28:31,760 in almost 10 years of public service. 396 00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:37,700 I am pleased to accept the position of the Attorney's Generalship of the United 397 00:28:37,700 --> 00:28:43,300 States. I understand and realize the great problems and difficulties that 398 00:28:43,300 --> 00:28:45,520 be facing all of us in that position. 399 00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:49,080 There was a lot of criticism of his appointment. 400 00:28:49,420 --> 00:28:53,300 Robert Kennedy was 35 years old when his brother appointed him. 401 00:28:53,610 --> 00:28:55,850 He had never practiced law in the private sector. 402 00:28:56,070 --> 00:29:00,650 Many people questioned the nepotistic aspect of it, the lack of experience. 403 00:29:01,070 --> 00:29:04,250 So there was a lot of people watching very, very closely. 404 00:29:04,630 --> 00:29:08,050 That building across the street there is the U .S. Department of Justice. 405 00:29:08,430 --> 00:29:12,770 You may be able to see lights burning in the fifth floor office of Attorney 406 00:29:12,770 --> 00:29:14,330 General Robert Kennedy. 407 00:29:14,750 --> 00:29:18,970 The late night work is a symbol of the vigor of the Kennedy administration. 408 00:29:19,850 --> 00:29:22,070 Bobby was not necessarily satisfied. 409 00:29:22,780 --> 00:29:24,780 with the way things were functioning. 410 00:29:25,100 --> 00:29:29,160 So he sort of re -engineered the Department of Justice. 411 00:29:29,940 --> 00:29:34,500 After the election, he invited me in, and we had a long interview, and I 412 00:29:34,500 --> 00:29:35,500 his special assistant. 413 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:41,380 I knew that Robert Kennedy was a centerpiece of the new frontier of young 414 00:29:41,380 --> 00:29:44,640 coming in and commanding and handling difficult problems. 415 00:29:46,540 --> 00:29:52,100 I went to work in the Justice Department with Robert Kennedy, and he was a 416 00:29:52,100 --> 00:29:55,200 terrific, terrific person to work for. 417 00:29:55,400 --> 00:30:01,260 It was an office where, characteristically, his sleeves were all 418 00:30:01,260 --> 00:30:05,320 think it connoted that we're working hard, but also that we're informal. 419 00:30:06,780 --> 00:30:07,780 Hello? 420 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:10,940 I think you got the wrong number. 421 00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:13,480 Okay, all right. 422 00:30:21,340 --> 00:30:24,020 Nobody had to ask for loyalty. 423 00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:30,720 Robert Kennedy invoked from everybody who worked for him a sense of loyalty 424 00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:36,740 a sense that his invitation to participate and to lead was to invite 425 00:30:36,740 --> 00:30:38,460 look to broader horizons. 426 00:30:40,020 --> 00:30:41,660 I think he was... 427 00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:48,320 so sincere in what he believed in those days, but he was crossing the line on 428 00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:50,600 things that shouldn't happen in America. 429 00:30:50,900 --> 00:30:54,640 Some of these big -time gangsters corrupt the very system under which we 430 00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:57,540 and something has to be done about it and the only thing that's going to be 431 00:30:57,540 --> 00:31:01,580 is by the American people and those charged with authority taking some major 432 00:31:01,580 --> 00:31:02,740 steps and doing them now. 433 00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:08,440 He brought in a lot of very, very smart people and said, hey, OK, we have a 434 00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:13,180 constitution, but let's get that guy. Never mind what the law says. Just find 435 00:31:13,180 --> 00:31:19,120 way around him. Let's get Hoffa. Let's get the mafia. Let's get anybody that 436 00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:22,700 they want to bring the full force of the Justice Department against. 437 00:31:23,210 --> 00:31:27,370 All of a sudden, everybody's being wiretapped, mail openings, garbage 438 00:31:27,370 --> 00:31:32,390 collections, knocking on a door, raids, suppression of civil liberties. 439 00:31:32,690 --> 00:31:35,790 General Kennedy, why do you disagree with the famous judge's statement, 440 00:31:35,970 --> 00:31:37,590 wiretapping is dirty business? 441 00:31:40,390 --> 00:31:44,190 I don't know what to do with what you're referring to. Robert Kennedy, he in 442 00:31:44,190 --> 00:31:50,150 fact was the guy who did sign the bugging for the wiretapping of Dr. 443 00:31:50,430 --> 00:31:51,430 King. 444 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:57,060 Hoover, head of the FBI, was convinced that all the black leaders were 445 00:31:57,060 --> 00:32:01,580 communists. Bobby was his boss, and Bobby did sign it. 446 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:07,180 Lieutenant General Bobby is a very attractive human being, but his greatest 447 00:32:07,180 --> 00:32:11,600 weakness, the thing I've worried about before he was appointed, is that when 448 00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:15,780 he's bent on what he thinks is the right course, he's rather ruthless in action. 449 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:20,880 With the reengineering of the law enforcement apparatus, Bobby Kennedy's 450 00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:27,700 Department displaced the state control of crime and law enforcement and 451 00:32:27,700 --> 00:32:33,680 substituted that with the creation of a de facto federal police force. 452 00:32:33,980 --> 00:32:40,680 Instead of having a local U .S. attorney, Bobby was a great guy for 453 00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:43,820 strike force people from out of the state. 454 00:32:44,510 --> 00:32:50,350 Now, applying it to the South, it had some great value down South where they 455 00:32:50,350 --> 00:32:51,650 were oppressing the black people. 456 00:33:04,550 --> 00:33:10,070 You can never whip these boys if you don't keep you and them separate. 457 00:33:10,730 --> 00:33:13,290 You've got to keep the white and the black separate. 458 00:33:13,850 --> 00:33:17,090 The people that wrote the Declaration of Independence kept slaves, and I know 459 00:33:17,090 --> 00:33:20,650 that Abraham Lincoln never planned to allow general mixing of the races. In 460 00:33:20,650 --> 00:33:23,290 fact, he said that the only solution was to send the Negroes back to Africa. 461 00:33:24,490 --> 00:33:27,710 We're not used to them sitting down beside us because I wasn't raised with 462 00:33:27,830 --> 00:33:30,310 I never have lived with them, and I'm not going to start now. 463 00:33:31,090 --> 00:33:34,650 I'm sorry. Our management does not allow us to serve Negroes in here. 464 00:33:48,270 --> 00:33:52,790 One of the most important components of the civil rights movement is to put the 465 00:33:52,790 --> 00:33:58,850 pressure on and to maintain constant pressure to win the sympathy of the 466 00:33:58,850 --> 00:33:59,850 government. 467 00:34:12,929 --> 00:34:18,679 There was something deep down within me, moving me, that... I could no longer be 468 00:34:18,679 --> 00:34:21,020 satisfied or go along with an evil sister. 469 00:34:23,179 --> 00:34:27,679 I had a feeling that President Kennedy and his brother, the Attorney General, 470 00:34:27,780 --> 00:34:34,080 Robert Kennedy, would not fully understand what was happening and what 471 00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:35,139 happened in the South. 472 00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:39,400 There are injustices that exist in some of these communities, and the white 473 00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:44,860 leadership refuses to discuss, even discuss, even meet with Negroes to 474 00:34:44,860 --> 00:34:45,860 those injustices. 475 00:34:46,110 --> 00:34:52,750 They didn't want to do anything to offend the Democratic white 476 00:34:52,750 --> 00:34:58,510 leadership in the South. On the other hand, I think that the Negroes once 477 00:34:58,510 --> 00:35:04,250 agreed to sit down and try to remedy these problems. The Negroes have to show 478 00:35:04,250 --> 00:35:10,450 some understanding and meet with them. 479 00:35:10,890 --> 00:35:15,670 and not have demonstrations just to demonstrate, not to demonstrate just to 480 00:35:15,670 --> 00:35:19,470 their political strength, just to create disorder without any purpose. 481 00:35:21,230 --> 00:35:27,610 And the Freedom Ride of 1961 became the first real test for the administration. 482 00:35:30,690 --> 00:35:35,430 From all over the country, mixed groups traveling by bus entered the South, 483 00:35:35,590 --> 00:35:37,610 determined to challenge the practice. 484 00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:41,460 of providing separate facilities for Negro and white travelers. 485 00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:49,240 You will walk into a so -called white waiting room and maybe take seats at a 486 00:35:49,240 --> 00:35:50,240 lunch counter. 487 00:35:50,500 --> 00:35:55,200 You go into a restroom and you'll be arrested. 488 00:35:55,620 --> 00:36:01,000 And Robert Kennedy was saying this is the role of the state and not the role 489 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:02,940 the Department of Justice to play. 490 00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:08,040 I don't see that the freedom riders who are so -called freedom riders who are 491 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:10,280 making these trips accomplish a great deal. 492 00:36:10,620 --> 00:36:14,360 I question their wisdom. I don't question their legal right to travel, 493 00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:18,680 question their wisdom. I think that some people can get hurt. 494 00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:21,840 Now the matter is in the courts. 495 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:24,900 It seems to me that that's the proper place for it to be. 496 00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:28,760 Then the bus was burned in Anniston, Alabama. 497 00:36:39,340 --> 00:36:42,760 I learned about it when I came to my office on a Monday morning that there 498 00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:46,740 been a bus burning, and I was terribly concerned about that. 499 00:36:47,140 --> 00:36:50,800 The situation was building up in rather an ugly fashion. 500 00:36:52,660 --> 00:36:58,100 We arrived in downtown Montgomery the very moment that we started off the bus. 501 00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:06,020 An angry mob of men, women, and children, teenagers, they 502 00:37:06,020 --> 00:37:10,140 start... just beating people with anything they could use as a weapon. 503 00:37:10,980 --> 00:37:13,720 We were pinned up against the wall, and we were beaten. 504 00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:17,560 I was hit in the head by a man with a wooden crate. 505 00:37:18,820 --> 00:37:21,060 We thought we were going to die on that day. 506 00:37:21,940 --> 00:37:23,520 Why are you going on with the trip? 507 00:37:23,740 --> 00:37:28,320 Well, I feel that it's got to be done now, and I might as well be willing to 508 00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,700 sacrifice this ultimate gift, and that's my life, I guess. 509 00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:35,220 Dr. King became directly involved in the new movement. 510 00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:38,120 as chairman of the Freedom Rider Coordinating Committee. 511 00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:43,120 Later that night, we met with him. We started planning a mass meeting at a 512 00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:44,120 little church. 513 00:37:44,140 --> 00:37:48,140 And a mob that evening tried to burn the church. 514 00:37:48,900 --> 00:37:51,300 And now we've had an ugly mob outside. 515 00:37:51,860 --> 00:37:54,400 They burned some automobiles. 516 00:37:55,060 --> 00:38:01,820 But we are not, we are not giving in for what we are standing 517 00:38:01,820 --> 00:38:02,820 for. 518 00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:09,620 And maybe it takes something like this for the federal government to see that 519 00:38:09,620 --> 00:38:14,340 Alabama is not going to place any limit upon itself. It must be imposed from 520 00:38:14,340 --> 00:38:15,340 without. 521 00:38:15,540 --> 00:38:20,540 And Dr. King went down into the basement and made a call to Robert Kennedy and 522 00:38:20,540 --> 00:38:25,000 just said to him in so many words, we have a very dangerous situation here. 523 00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:29,820 If we fail to intervene or do something, people will be killed. 524 00:38:30,670 --> 00:38:35,550 And it was then, after we found that law and order couldn't be maintained, that 525 00:38:35,550 --> 00:38:39,150 we sent in marshals to ensure that there was protection. 526 00:38:39,650 --> 00:38:45,210 In this situation, I want to make this announcement that the city is now under 527 00:38:45,210 --> 00:38:49,030 martial law and troops are on the way into Montana. 528 00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:06,200 The U .S. Marshals remain in Alabama. 529 00:39:06,540 --> 00:39:13,360 As soon as the federal government is shown by action that the state of 530 00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:18,380 Alabama can deal with law enforcement on their own, the U .S. Marshals will be 531 00:39:18,380 --> 00:39:24,760 out of there. I don't think there's any question that they saved a number of 532 00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:28,080 lives and prevented widespread bloodshed. 533 00:39:29,610 --> 00:39:33,670 As a result of the Freedom Rides, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued a 534 00:39:33,670 --> 00:39:37,710 ruling, which went into effect on November 1st, ordering that all the 535 00:39:37,710 --> 00:39:41,710 segregation signs must come down in the terminals and that in their place must 536 00:39:41,710 --> 00:39:43,510 be posted desegregation signs. 537 00:39:45,810 --> 00:39:52,250 In that period of time, Bobby Kennedy and I began to develop an appreciation 538 00:39:52,250 --> 00:39:58,070 one another, and I soon found myself a guest at his home when I got to know 539 00:39:58,070 --> 00:39:59,680 Ethel. and a lot of his children. 540 00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:06,560 He was a great father from what I saw, and his children roamed all over him. 541 00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:14,180 Unlike most guys that had his capacity and his power, he was not absent. 542 00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:22,480 And I felt somewhere in him resided a moral center that was far 543 00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:24,600 beyond what may have been expressed politically. 544 00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:32,400 I'd gotten a call from James Baldwin, a great black writer who'd befriended the 545 00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:36,680 Kennedys. He said, I'm coming to New York and I would like to bring a little 546 00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:39,300 group of black people together to talk with Bobby. 547 00:40:39,860 --> 00:40:45,780 Baldwin suspected that here was an opportunity for a very willing 548 00:40:45,780 --> 00:40:47,780 know more about what's going on. 549 00:40:48,060 --> 00:40:52,720 I think the one who's got to find some way 550 00:40:52,720 --> 00:40:59,680 of putting The present administration of this country, on the spot, 551 00:40:59,940 --> 00:41:06,820 one has got to force, somehow, from Washington, a 552 00:41:06,820 --> 00:41:12,540 moral commitment, not to the Negro people, but to the life of this country. 553 00:41:14,820 --> 00:41:19,880 Bobby offered his apartment that they had on Central Park South, and we got to 554 00:41:19,880 --> 00:41:24,200 his apartment, we had a lovely meal, and he was a... gracious host, and 555 00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:27,600 everything he said on a very light, drifting level. 556 00:41:28,180 --> 00:41:32,800 And he turned the conversation to the war in Vietnam and what role were black 557 00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:35,540 people expected to play to defend this nation. 558 00:41:36,980 --> 00:41:42,940 And a young man by the name of Jerome Smith, who had been beaten near death as 559 00:41:42,940 --> 00:41:49,300 civil rights activist, said to Bobby, I'm out of here. I want nothing to do 560 00:41:49,300 --> 00:41:50,300 this. 561 00:41:50,680 --> 00:41:51,760 What do you... 562 00:41:52,340 --> 00:41:53,340 What's your game? 563 00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:55,760 I mean, he just ripped it to the bone. 564 00:41:56,220 --> 00:41:59,240 And it kind of shocked Bobby. 565 00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:04,620 Jerome took the position that he, as a black man, he would never commit himself 566 00:42:04,620 --> 00:42:06,120 to fighting for this country. 567 00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:08,580 That triggered Kennedy's passion. 568 00:42:09,240 --> 00:42:11,580 And Bobby got very angry. 569 00:42:12,060 --> 00:42:14,860 He just felt that it was deeply unpatriotic. 570 00:42:15,420 --> 00:42:18,260 That evening in the apartment shook him to the core. 571 00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:20,880 It was a great shock to me. 572 00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:26,620 The Attorney General, Mr. Robert Kennedy, did not know that I would have 573 00:42:26,620 --> 00:42:32,880 convincing my nephew to go to Cuba, for example, 574 00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:39,840 to liberate the Cubans in defense of a government which now says 575 00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:46,460 it is doing everything it can do, which cannot 576 00:42:46,460 --> 00:42:47,460 liberate me. 577 00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:54,630 After that, A week or two may have gone by. I picked up with Bobby again. We 578 00:42:54,630 --> 00:42:55,850 just talked about it. 579 00:42:56,250 --> 00:43:00,430 I told him what I thought, that his experience was important for him to have 580 00:43:00,430 --> 00:43:04,370 because what he heard that evening was the passionate side of black thought. 581 00:43:04,690 --> 00:43:09,970 What white people have to do is try to find out in their own hearts why it was 582 00:43:09,970 --> 00:43:12,190 necessary to have a nigger in the first place. 583 00:43:12,410 --> 00:43:13,410 Because I'm not a nigger. 584 00:43:14,110 --> 00:43:15,110 I'm a man. 585 00:43:15,410 --> 00:43:17,850 But if you think I'm a nigger, it means you need it. 586 00:43:18,350 --> 00:43:21,270 The question you've got to ask yourself, the white population of this country 587 00:43:21,270 --> 00:43:23,870 has got to ask itself, have I met the nigger here? 588 00:43:24,870 --> 00:43:27,470 And you invented him. You, the white people, invented him. 589 00:43:28,170 --> 00:43:29,350 And you've got to find out why. 590 00:43:37,610 --> 00:43:41,290 One of America's favorite indoor sports is rating our presidents. 591 00:43:41,730 --> 00:43:44,670 What has that boy in the White House done to us? 592 00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:50,500 Not since the days of FDR has the level of attack on a president seemed quite so 593 00:43:50,500 --> 00:43:57,020 heated. The Kennedy administration, in our opinion, has made an error in not 594 00:43:57,020 --> 00:44:00,440 requesting the Congress to pass civil rights bills. 595 00:44:00,700 --> 00:44:04,980 The present United States Attorney General, with the approval of the 596 00:44:04,980 --> 00:44:10,280 of the United States, is far more responsible for the unfortunate ratio of 597 00:44:10,280 --> 00:44:13,200 violence and troubles we are having throughout this nation. 598 00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:18,320 than even the ruthless leaders who are sponsoring and promoting racial unrest. 599 00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:21,800 I don't know why President Kennedy thinks he has such a mandate. 600 00:44:22,700 --> 00:44:26,340 He got elected by just a gnat's eyebrow. 601 00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:28,520 There's large -scale unemployment. 602 00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:31,880 There are the continuing upsets over desegregation. 603 00:44:32,220 --> 00:44:36,160 Then there's Cuba, where Mr. Kennedy made his first radical foreign policy 604 00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:37,880 decision and saw it fail. 605 00:44:38,680 --> 00:44:42,560 The air and sea invasion of Cuba is crushed to the Bay of Pigs. 606 00:44:49,740 --> 00:44:51,680 What, you're down to 70 %? Yeah. 607 00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:52,980 Gallup -O. When was that? 608 00:44:53,900 --> 00:44:55,160 Oh, about two days ago. 609 00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:56,360 Oh, I didn't see it. Yeah. 610 00:44:56,600 --> 00:44:59,000 It went 76 % to 70. 611 00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:01,200 Yeah, I didn't see Gallup -O. Was this in the Post? 612 00:45:01,820 --> 00:45:04,680 I don't know what paper. I read it going up on the plane Wednesday or Thursday. 613 00:45:04,860 --> 00:45:06,620 We've dropped 6 % in a month, haven't we? 614 00:45:07,380 --> 00:45:09,460 January. Boy, since that virus comes back. 615 00:45:09,720 --> 00:45:10,720 Okay. 616 00:45:10,780 --> 00:45:16,740 The question of whether the president is doing his job right is one of the most 617 00:45:16,740 --> 00:45:18,760 difficult that we've had to get judgments on. 618 00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:23,000 The changes in the times have made our political structure no longer viable, 619 00:45:23,260 --> 00:45:27,320 made it unable to produce results unless there's some terrible crisis to force 620 00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:28,320 action. 621 00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:45,240 11 .45 a .m. The men whom the President has summoned begin to arrive at the 622 00:45:45,240 --> 00:45:46,178 White House. 623 00:45:46,180 --> 00:45:47,600 Secretary of State Russ. 624 00:45:48,060 --> 00:45:52,440 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Taylor, Vice President Johnson, Defense 625 00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:57,280 Secretary McNamara, CIA Director McCone, Attorney General Robert Kennedy. 626 00:46:23,900 --> 00:46:28,660 John and Robert Kennedy sat in that room with the armed forces of the United 627 00:46:28,660 --> 00:46:33,760 States, the vice president, Lyndon Johnson, all of whom thought that we 628 00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:34,760 invade Cuba. 629 00:46:53,020 --> 00:46:57,200 This was the closest that the United States has ever come to nuclear 630 00:46:57,200 --> 00:47:01,460 conflagration. And John and Robert Kennedy stood alone. 631 00:47:21,200 --> 00:47:23,060 Talk about difficult negotiations. 632 00:47:23,860 --> 00:47:27,380 There probably was never a more difficult negotiation than that one. 633 00:47:30,020 --> 00:47:34,160 Robert Kennedy had a shrewd sense of diplomacy, something that I really 634 00:47:34,160 --> 00:47:36,980 realize or understand until I saw it come out at that time. 635 00:47:37,220 --> 00:47:43,220 It was he who brought together State, Defense, CIA, the UN mission, organized 636 00:47:43,220 --> 00:47:47,760 them to work together to very quickly bring to his brother the alternatives 637 00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:48,860 were open to him as president. 638 00:47:51,050 --> 00:47:55,370 He offers this to you. I haven't refined it at all, but he offers this 639 00:47:55,370 --> 00:48:01,230 arrangement that he will withdraw the base in Cuba for assurances that we 640 00:48:01,230 --> 00:48:02,230 intend to leave the base. 641 00:48:02,510 --> 00:48:07,170 The question of the Turkish base is something that has to be brought that 642 00:48:07,250 --> 00:48:09,350 There should be disarmament of the Turkish base. 643 00:48:09,890 --> 00:48:13,030 He's saying, if you get yours out of Turkey, we'll get out of it. 644 00:48:14,170 --> 00:48:16,910 From the Kremlin comes the Soviet response. 645 00:48:18,600 --> 00:48:23,420 A Russian leader says his country will halt shipments of offensive equipment to 646 00:48:23,420 --> 00:48:28,700 Cuba and also will dismantle and take back all missiles in place or under 647 00:48:28,700 --> 00:48:32,600 construction there. Across the world goes a long sigh of relief. 648 00:48:33,600 --> 00:48:37,780 With it, the world's first nuclear showdown is over. 649 00:48:42,060 --> 00:48:46,260 Robert Kennedy was the second most powerful person in the United States. 650 00:48:46,780 --> 00:48:49,800 It wasn't just the Attorney General and the Justice Department. 651 00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:55,560 It was Robert Kennedy, the brother of the president, and even more than that, 652 00:48:55,700 --> 00:49:02,000 the brother of a president who trusted him totally and brought him into every 653 00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:03,880 important question that had to be resolved. 654 00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:12,360 I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, 655 00:49:12,380 --> 00:49:14,900 and I say segregation now. 656 00:49:15,620 --> 00:49:19,120 segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever. 657 00:49:22,120 --> 00:49:26,020 Governor George Wallace made a campaign promise to stand in the doorway himself 658 00:49:26,020 --> 00:49:30,520 to prevent two Negro students from registering at the University of 659 00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:34,640 Kids carrying anti -Kennedy signs appeared in front of the Capitol before 660 00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:38,600 Attorney General arrived. For a closed conference, the signs read Mississippi 661 00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:42,600 murderer, Kennedy kosher and Khrushchev, Washington, D .C., a disgrace to white 662 00:49:42,600 --> 00:49:46,590 people. All of this activity about 15 minutes before the Attorney General 663 00:49:46,590 --> 00:49:50,270 arrived. Kennedy then went into the governor's office for a closed 664 00:49:51,270 --> 00:49:56,430 I don't have no objection to our remarks being recorded here, do you? Whatever 665 00:49:56,430 --> 00:49:57,430 you like. 666 00:49:57,510 --> 00:50:00,470 You might save this conversation for posterity. 667 00:50:02,490 --> 00:50:06,530 Do you think it would be so horrifying to have a Negro attend the University of 668 00:50:06,530 --> 00:50:12,010 Alabama? I think it's horrifying for the federal courts and the central 669 00:50:12,010 --> 00:50:13,010 government. 670 00:50:13,360 --> 00:50:17,680 To rewrite all the law and force upon people that which they don't want. 671 00:50:18,240 --> 00:50:21,620 The government, it's not the government. We're not rewriting the law. The 672 00:50:21,620 --> 00:50:27,660 federal courts have made a decision. The federal courts rewrote the law on the 673 00:50:27,660 --> 00:50:30,480 matter of integration and segregation. For a hundred years, they said we could 674 00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:31,620 have segregated schools. 675 00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:35,300 I think integration is bad. I don't think it's good. And you really don't 676 00:50:35,300 --> 00:50:39,240 any bona fide integration anyplace in the country. You know that. 677 00:50:39,500 --> 00:50:41,020 In fact, you don't have it in Washington. 678 00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:47,020 Virginia. Why don't the government make all them officials come back to Virginia 679 00:50:47,020 --> 00:50:48,640 and Maryland and go to school in Washington? 680 00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:53,040 I've seen a lot of ditties throughout the world, Governor, that aren't 681 00:50:53,040 --> 00:50:54,040 controlled by white people. 682 00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:59,600 Not controlled by the white people, but they're not controlled by neighbors. 683 00:50:59,880 --> 00:51:01,260 Oh, yeah. I've seen a lot of those. 684 00:51:01,760 --> 00:51:03,920 I have nothing against people because of their color. 685 00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:09,320 My children right now are being nursed by colored folks. I just don't believe 686 00:51:09,320 --> 00:51:10,760 social and education mixing. 687 00:51:11,210 --> 00:51:16,010 I will never myself submit voluntarily to any integration of any school system 688 00:51:16,010 --> 00:51:17,010 in Alabama. 689 00:51:21,210 --> 00:51:28,090 We knew 690 00:51:28,090 --> 00:51:32,930 there was going to be a struggle with Governor Wallace, so we went to see 691 00:51:32,930 --> 00:51:35,210 and asked if we could make a film about it. 692 00:51:35,630 --> 00:51:37,690 We had made New Frontiers. 693 00:51:37,980 --> 00:51:41,800 which was a film I did in the White House with the president, with Kennedy. 694 00:51:42,780 --> 00:51:47,180 They were very nervous about Alabama because they had had a couple people 695 00:51:47,180 --> 00:51:48,180 in Mississippi. 696 00:51:48,680 --> 00:51:50,500 And I said, well, I want to film Alabama. 697 00:51:51,080 --> 00:51:52,540 And Lovie said, okay. 698 00:51:53,340 --> 00:51:54,740 And so we made Crisis. 699 00:51:55,520 --> 00:51:59,640 The Attorney General is responsible for enforcing the federal court order for 700 00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:02,100 the entrance of the two students in the University of Alabama. 701 00:52:02,620 --> 00:52:04,580 The Attorney General, I'll call it to you. 702 00:52:06,020 --> 00:52:07,020 Hey, General. 703 00:52:10,620 --> 00:52:14,800 I thought we could try to develop a plan about what's going to happen when 704 00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:16,480 General Graham gets there. 705 00:52:17,200 --> 00:52:21,140 Now, I'm not very much in favor of picking the governor up and moving him 706 00:52:21,140 --> 00:52:24,820 the way. I think it would be much better if we could develop some system. You 707 00:52:24,820 --> 00:52:26,320 have enough people just to push him aside. 708 00:52:26,980 --> 00:52:31,380 I just want you all to be sure that we're not going to let anybody who 709 00:52:31,380 --> 00:52:33,060 desecrated this university. 710 00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:34,900 Because you've got agitators. 711 00:52:35,640 --> 00:52:41,100 The provocateurs who come from outside this state, who themselves want to stir 712 00:52:41,100 --> 00:52:45,380 up some violence in order to hurt our cause. 713 00:52:46,400 --> 00:52:50,460 And if he still refuses, then Nick Katzenbach will say that we got this 714 00:52:50,460 --> 00:52:54,280 order and we have to go through on a legal basis. He's made the test. This 715 00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:57,360 matter should be determined in courts. It shouldn't be determined out here. 716 00:52:57,760 --> 00:52:58,760 He's had this... 717 00:52:59,310 --> 00:53:03,130 and just let him go through, or otherwise we're going to have to take 718 00:53:03,130 --> 00:53:05,830 steps because these students are going to attend the University of Alabama. 719 00:53:07,770 --> 00:53:11,090 Then, if he still doesn't move, then we'll try to get by him. 720 00:53:12,130 --> 00:53:14,050 Pushing? We'll be pushing a little bit. 721 00:53:16,930 --> 00:53:20,750 Just having somebody stand in front of him and try to walk through the three 722 00:53:20,750 --> 00:53:25,170 doors. We're going to try to have somebody inside who will open up one of 723 00:53:25,170 --> 00:53:26,170 other doors. 724 00:53:26,440 --> 00:53:28,920 Obviously. Let's cut this now. 725 00:53:32,220 --> 00:53:36,660 To manage his strategy on the scene in Alabama, Robert Kennedy is sending his 726 00:53:36,660 --> 00:53:40,120 deputy attorney general, Nicholas Katzenbach, to Tuscaloosa. 727 00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:44,540 Well, I have every indication he's not going to step aside up there. And I have 728 00:53:44,540 --> 00:53:48,860 every indication he will dramatize to that group of reporters and that crowd 729 00:53:48,860 --> 00:53:51,040 fact that he has been forcibly removed. 730 00:53:51,520 --> 00:53:52,680 Want to say hello to Kerry? 731 00:53:52,980 --> 00:53:53,980 Yeah. 732 00:53:56,200 --> 00:53:57,380 Hi, Carrie. How are you, dear? 733 00:53:57,920 --> 00:53:59,020 How are you doing? 734 00:54:01,880 --> 00:54:05,800 Are you at our house? 735 00:54:06,420 --> 00:54:09,780 No, I'm not out at your house. I'm way down in the Southland. 736 00:54:10,740 --> 00:54:11,740 Okay, say goodbye. 737 00:54:12,620 --> 00:54:14,300 Say goodbye. 738 00:54:15,100 --> 00:54:16,100 Goodbye. 739 00:54:16,340 --> 00:54:17,800 Goodbye. Hello? 740 00:54:18,520 --> 00:54:21,060 Listen, Nick, you're going to have to play it a little bit by ear, but I 741 00:54:21,060 --> 00:54:25,620 wouldn't take it too... I mean, almost dismiss him as being... 742 00:54:25,920 --> 00:54:27,940 rather a second -rate figure for you. 743 00:54:29,240 --> 00:54:32,720 He's wasting your time, he's wasting the students' time, and he's caused a big 744 00:54:32,720 --> 00:54:33,720 scene up there. 745 00:54:34,040 --> 00:54:36,240 You know, I'd have that sort of tone of voice. 746 00:54:36,740 --> 00:54:37,740 Don't you think? 747 00:54:39,120 --> 00:54:40,580 Yeah. All right. 748 00:54:41,580 --> 00:54:42,580 Good luck. 749 00:54:42,780 --> 00:54:43,780 You'll do well. 750 00:54:48,160 --> 00:54:51,000 The University of Alabama campus at Tuscaloosa. 751 00:54:51,340 --> 00:54:54,840 is under a tight security guard of state police as Governor George Wallace 752 00:54:54,840 --> 00:54:57,200 prepares to confront a deputy U .S. attorney. 753 00:55:04,280 --> 00:55:10,220 I've come here to ask you now for an unequivocal assurance that you will not 754 00:55:10,220 --> 00:55:15,320 entry to these students, to William Malone and to James Hood, and that you 755 00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:19,380 step aside peacefully and do your constitutional duty as governor. 756 00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:25,660 I do hereby denounce and forbid this illegal and unwarranted action by the 757 00:55:25,660 --> 00:55:26,660 central government. 758 00:55:28,020 --> 00:55:34,320 Governor Wallace, I take it from that statement that you are going to stand in 759 00:55:34,320 --> 00:55:39,260 that door. Governor George Wallace of Alabama has stood in the schoolhouse 760 00:55:41,360 --> 00:55:45,520 After the federal officers leave, there's a lull of several hours while 761 00:55:45,520 --> 00:55:48,320 President Kennedy federalizes the Alabama National Guard. 762 00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:50,140 Will you issue the proclamation now, Simon? 763 00:55:52,040 --> 00:55:54,000 The executive order, yeah. Right now? 764 00:55:54,340 --> 00:55:55,340 Okay, okay. 765 00:55:56,720 --> 00:55:58,560 And they move to the campus. 766 00:55:59,040 --> 00:56:03,080 Brigadier General Henry Graham arrives to tell the governor, it's my sad duty 767 00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:06,240 ask you to step aside on orders of the President of the United States. 768 00:56:21,390 --> 00:56:25,370 to federal authority, but promises to continue what he terms a constitutional 769 00:56:25,370 --> 00:56:29,810 fight. Five minutes after the governor leaves, James Hood is the first of his 770 00:56:29,810 --> 00:56:32,190 race to become a University of Alabama student. 771 00:56:32,510 --> 00:56:35,510 He is followed into the registrar's office by Vivian Malone. 772 00:56:37,370 --> 00:56:41,410 This nation was founded on the principle that all men are created equal. 773 00:56:42,010 --> 00:56:48,870 It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students 774 00:56:48,870 --> 00:56:49,870 of any color. 775 00:56:50,170 --> 00:56:55,310 to attend any public institution they select without having to be backed up by 776 00:56:55,310 --> 00:56:56,310 troops. 777 00:56:56,610 --> 00:57:00,110 We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and a people. 778 00:57:00,930 --> 00:57:07,650 A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that 779 00:57:07,650 --> 00:57:11,570 revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all. 780 00:57:12,210 --> 00:57:17,030 Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. 781 00:57:17,670 --> 00:57:22,970 Those who act boldly... by recognizing right as well as reality. 782 00:57:23,930 --> 00:57:28,690 Next week, I shall ask the Congress of the United States to act to make it 783 00:57:28,690 --> 00:57:34,110 possible for American citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free 784 00:57:34,110 --> 00:57:38,190 election without interference or fear of reprisal. 785 00:57:41,330 --> 00:57:45,770 When I first met Robert Kennedy in 63, he said to me, 786 00:57:47,280 --> 00:57:49,000 He said, John, I now understand. 787 00:57:50,420 --> 00:57:55,020 The young people, the students have educated me. 788 00:57:57,260 --> 00:58:00,100 And he went on to say, we're going to bring justice to this country. 789 00:58:00,720 --> 00:58:04,740 The method that is being used most widely in the United States at the 790 00:58:04,740 --> 00:58:09,520 time to deny an individual the right to vote, who happens to be a Negro, are 791 00:58:09,520 --> 00:58:11,000 these literacy tests. 792 00:58:11,360 --> 00:58:14,440 Well, I would say that if a person has completed the sixth grade and hasn't 793 00:58:14,440 --> 00:58:16,720 learned to read and write, they're not to be allowed to vote. 794 00:58:17,620 --> 00:58:22,680 Do you have a school system in North Carolina that you complete the sixth 795 00:58:22,680 --> 00:58:23,840 and you can't read or write? 796 00:58:24,430 --> 00:58:27,170 And I think that we should do something. The federal government has a 797 00:58:27,170 --> 00:58:33,350 responsibility to all of our citizens to make sure that they have the right to 798 00:58:33,350 --> 00:58:39,050 exercise their franchise when it's being denied to them because of the fact that 799 00:58:39,050 --> 00:58:41,150 they happen to be of a Negro race. 800 00:58:41,470 --> 00:58:46,990 He didn't mind getting into a battle where victory wasn't assured, but he was 801 00:58:46,990 --> 00:58:47,990 prepared to fight. 802 00:58:48,280 --> 00:58:51,700 I would hope that you would join with us in sponsoring this legislation to 803 00:58:51,700 --> 00:58:54,920 remedy this situation, Mr. Chairman. I love the Constitution too much to do so. 804 00:58:55,040 --> 00:58:56,420 Well, I love the Constitution also, 805 00:58:57,180 --> 00:58:59,720 Mr. Chairman, but this doesn't violate the Constitution. 806 00:59:28,910 --> 00:59:31,870 A march in Washington, D .C. It's America at its best. 807 00:59:32,910 --> 00:59:34,370 It was a great day. 808 00:59:35,710 --> 00:59:41,710 And out of it emerged a very devastating but magnificent speech that Dr. 809 00:59:41,970 --> 00:59:42,970 King delivered. 810 00:59:43,810 --> 00:59:45,010 I have a dream. 811 00:59:46,330 --> 00:59:50,630 And the other speaker was a young man by the name of John Lewis. 812 00:59:51,270 --> 00:59:52,930 He gave a hell of a speech. 813 00:59:56,510 --> 00:59:58,310 revolution that is keeping this nation. 814 00:59:58,770 --> 01:00:03,890 Get in and stay in the streets of every city, every village and helmet of this 815 01:00:03,890 --> 01:00:05,690 nation until true freedom comes. 816 01:00:06,130 --> 01:00:09,730 We must get in this revolution and complete the revolution. 817 01:00:10,570 --> 01:00:15,630 On the Delta of Mississippi, in Southwest Georgia, in the Black Belt of 818 01:00:15,930 --> 01:00:20,790 in Harlem, in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and all over this nation, 819 01:00:20,790 --> 01:00:23,330 Black Mass is on the march for Darwin's freedom. 820 01:00:29,550 --> 01:00:34,610 Robert Kennedy, along with his brother, President Kennedy, responded to 821 01:00:34,610 --> 01:00:35,610 pressure. 822 01:00:35,730 --> 01:00:38,370 They responded to the resistance. 823 01:00:40,050 --> 01:00:45,770 He almost became a crusader for civil rights and social justice. 824 01:00:47,370 --> 01:00:51,430 We knew that if there was ever going to be an opportunity for us to get the 825 01:00:51,430 --> 01:00:56,250 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, much of it was ignited by what the 826 01:00:56,250 --> 01:00:57,570 Kennedys had done. 827 01:02:38,280 --> 01:02:39,920 A flash from Dallas. 828 01:02:41,300 --> 01:02:45,700 President Kennedy is dead. A bullet wound. 829 01:02:45,960 --> 01:02:48,780 This is the latest information we have from Dallas. 830 01:02:49,080 --> 01:02:54,740 Of course, standing by to give you all available information as it comes to us. 831 01:02:55,620 --> 01:02:59,600 I will repeat with the greatest regret this flash. 832 01:03:00,280 --> 01:03:05,660 Two priests who were with President Kennedy say he has died of bullet 833 01:03:17,480 --> 01:03:20,200 President Kennedy was murdered in Dallas, Texas. 834 01:03:20,640 --> 01:03:23,200 Lyndon Johnson is President of the United States. 835 01:03:23,460 --> 01:03:27,500 He took the oath of office in a jet airplane as he was coming back to 836 01:03:27,500 --> 01:03:28,500 Washington. 837 01:03:28,900 --> 01:03:32,580 Here was the scene at Andrews Air Force Base a few minutes ago. 838 01:03:35,040 --> 01:03:40,940 When I got to the airport and I looked over in the corner there by an old 839 01:03:41,040 --> 01:03:43,300 there was somebody walking up and down. 840 01:03:44,060 --> 01:03:47,080 I walked over. It was Bobby Kennedy by himself. 841 01:03:47,360 --> 01:03:48,420 He was crying. 842 01:03:50,840 --> 01:03:53,240 And I walked over, and I don't know what I said. 843 01:03:54,380 --> 01:03:59,380 Everybody was saying, Bob, we're all crying. We're all crying. 844 01:03:59,640 --> 01:04:01,220 The world is crying. 845 01:04:03,880 --> 01:04:07,660 Behind the casket is Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy. 846 01:04:08,320 --> 01:04:12,980 To her right is her brother -in -law, the Attorney General. 847 01:04:13,400 --> 01:04:16,600 Robert Kennedy, they are helping her down. 848 01:04:21,000 --> 01:04:25,060 This is a sad time for all people. 849 01:04:26,080 --> 01:04:30,360 We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. 850 01:04:31,580 --> 01:04:38,520 I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her 851 01:04:38,520 --> 01:04:39,520 family bear.