All language subtitles for Bobby.Kennedy.for.President.S01E01.1080p.WEB.x264-AMRAP_01

No American in this century has ever
been so likely to be president as Robert

Francis Kennedy.

Ladies and gentlemen, please move back
to the sidewalk.

Allow the motorcade to pass.

Please move back to the sidewalk.

Here in California, the caravan provided
the love feast Kennedy has come to

expect.

It happened again, as in city after
city, a mob scene and a traffic jam

much of downtown.

In California, it was unreal.

They had to hold him in the car because
people were pulling all sides.

He was touched, trapped, and at one
point torn from his car, wrenching the

of the man who usually holds him erect.

He was seen as a young, revolutionary,
radical figure who represents change.

He has spoken out often on the three
issues which inflame most Americans most

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.

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 in politics.

I think he's trying to ride on his
father's fortune and his brother's fame.

The John Kennedy haters of the early
60s, some Southerners, businessmen, and

conservative suburbanites, have now
become the Bobby haters of the late 60s.

My image of him was not very strong.

I had remembered him from the Justice
Department and the taping of Martin

King. In certain cases, wiretapping,
listening in on a telephone conversation

can be most helpful.

In the early days, President Kennedy and
his brother, Robert Kennedy, did not

want to appear to be moving too fast for
civil rights.

As far as Martin Luther King is
concerned, we called for a cooling off

People have gone into the streets and
created disorders without any purpose.

But he saw people suffering that have
changed him.

He fell in love with people.

He turned into one of the most sincere
persons involved in human values and

trying to do the right thing, trying to
do justice.

The campaign in California was really
wonderful. The vote count was beginning

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 difficult
to live with because he provided so

much hope for us.

I first got involved with Bob Kennedy in
the early 60s.

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

workers' rights, and so forth.

I've got major files in the storeroom
over here to deal with the labor

peace movements, and farm workers'
movements, but mostly dealing with the

Kennedy case.

This is a great event. Robert Kennedy
flew in for the end of Cesar Chavez's 23

-day fast.

There I am.

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

for labor in the late 60s. A lot of
forces were coming together through the

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

poverty.

It was just a very lively...

dynamic period and and fortunately we
had bob kennedy 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

rose and joseph patrick kennedy his
father a second generation immigrant

had become boston's youngest bank
president and went on to amass a fortune

become the american ambassador to great
britain

You grew up knowing that you would never
have to worry too much about money. Did

that mean you could put emphasis upon
something else? I think so. Of course,

it's a great advantage. I mean,
obviously, it was stressed in our family

because we had these tremendous
advantages, which other people do not

in turn, we had a responsibility to
others.

You have a reputation for toughness, for
being a fighter, that your father

offered a bit of competition in the
family.

Yes, family life is competitive.

Well, I was number seven, so that was
quite far down. And we were just trying

survive.

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 this sense of
right and wrong came from being

was very religious.

Bobby was the runt of the litter, so he
had a lot to prove to himself and to his

father. At Harvard, playing with a
fractured right leg in a cast, Bob

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.

Interrupting his college education to
serve in the Navy during World War II,

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

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.

Senator, yours is a quite exceptionally
political famine. Was it inevitable that

you would enter some form of politics?

I think I would have eventually ended up
somewhere 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. And

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

And my oldest brother, Joe, before he
was killed, was in government.

And then, of course, after the war, my
brother Jack was in.

Politics and government, and I was
involved in running his campaign.

The American people have spoken with a
resounding voice at the polls.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected.

The Republican Party is back in power.

In Massachusetts' Senate race,
Representative John F. Kennedy scores

few major Democratic victories.

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 could give us some

more up -to -date, of what the final
figures were.

I think that from what we got up to
about 20 minutes ago, we were winning by

about 70 ,000.

Well, I'm sure glad it's over, aren't
you, Bobby? I am glad.

Okay.

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.

He was a young man.

Bobby got the job as a lawyer in facing
communists with that terrible man, Joe

McCarthy. 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 that you may have about

members of the communist conspiracy?

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

Here's the committee's attorney
questioning Teamster union leader Jim

Did you say?

At SOB, I'll break his back.

Who? You.

I'll break it to who? To anyone.

Did you make that statement?

You can't remember three months ago
whether Johnny Deal was in your room?

man who's under indictment for throwing
acid in Victor Rizal's eye? You can't

remember what you talked about, and you
can't remember whether he was in your

room? It wasn't a event of anything 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

quite a television personality this
summer?

Well, 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.

The people who watched the...

Jimmy Hoffa hearings since that time.
People have written to us that they saw

them on television and have made
suggestions to us as to what leads we

follow up.

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

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.

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

These are the people of Wisconsin, where
there's going to be a presidential

primary next Tuesday.

Here into Wisconsin have come Jack
Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. 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

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.

I think 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 that 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, and this country is going to

ahead. I think that we're going to have
to be strong enough here in the United

States 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. And that's what
Senator Kennedy is going to do when he's

elected President of the United States.

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.

The Kennedy women arrived, first Ethel,
then the Senator's sisters.

I sort of feel like an independent
merchant competing against a chain store

I compete with the Kennedy family.

People often ask me, now which Kennedy
are you?

My brother Jack.

People have 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.

And he sat on an airplane next to a
little old lady. It was her first

And she looked up at him 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, well, that's not me.
That's my brother.

So then the lady said, but I think those
seven beautiful children you have, it's

just wonderful.

And Jack said, well, that's not me,
that's my brother.

So finally she said, well, then tell
your brother I wish him all the luck in

world in his bid for the presidential
nominee.

He said, no, no, no, that's me, that's
me.

We will be pleased to have the privilege
of seeing Bob Kennedy,

Senator Kennedy's son.

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

And my sister Eunice, and my sister
Jean, my

brother -in -law Peter Lawford, or my
brother Teddy, or my cousin Joe Gargan,

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

Great appreciation to my brother Bobby,
who has directed all 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.

We've just arrived in Los Angeles, the
city seething with convention

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

convinced that he will be stopped.

That 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.

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

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.

Bobby Kennedy and Abe Ribicoff, the
Kennedy floor leaders, please urge

for individual votes.

Nevertheless, some of the bosses of the
Democratic Party thought there was no

doubt Lenny Johnson was going to win
this nomination.

Johnson was a major figure in the U .S.
Senate and 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

his chief opposition because you had
more delegates than anybody else?

Well, I have great respect for Senator
Kennedy.

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

During four hours of nominations and
demonstrations, the final struggle for

votes goes on.

Senator Kennedy, 104 and a half.

Wyoming vote will make majority to
Senator Kennedy.

Governors, mayors, senators, bosses
gather to form a protective escort for

young new leader.

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

John Kennedy offered the vice presidency
to Wendy Johnson.

It was a stunning blow to everybody.

He has met with Senator Johnson for
about 15, 20 minutes in Senator

suite. 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

public life,

They were, I mean, Johnson, the glad
-hander, the bully, the pusher, 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 and say, you
know, did you really mean it? Are you

really accepting it?

It's got a lot of dangers to it. Aren't
you better off staying in the Senate and

all of that?

But Johnson knew Bobby didn't like him.

Johnson never forgave that.

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.

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

I think that we have a great deal of
work. I think that the work on

will be extremely helpful.

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

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

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

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

Party. We are extremely encouraged.

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 status.

My opinion is that there ought to be a
Negro on the cabinet, and I'll go

further. I'll make this prediction that
if Nixon was elected, there will be a

qualified Negro on the cabinet.

The 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, to have his 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,

Lord, Lord, get it from the men in the
mine.

I'll get it from the men in the mine,
Lord, Lord, I'll get it from the men in

the mine.

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

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, and the

feelings were reciprocal.

When John came to me, 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.

Martin Luther King is arrested in
Atlanta at a restaurant sit -in, then

sentenced to hard labor.

Negro leaders fear for his life.

King had been arrested, but John
Kennedy, he didn't say much on the

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 strategist, and Robert

gave us hell.

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

He said, close down 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? And he said, well, 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.

Then we woke up one day and found out
that Bobby intervened.

with the Georgia officials.

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.

I don't know the details of it, but
naturally I'm very happy to know of

Kennedy's concern and all that he did to
make this possible.

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.

That finally won many of us over to the
Democrats.

There are many Negroes 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?

A record number of Americans, upwards of
67 million, go to the polls to elect

the 35th president of the United States.

At his Hyannisport, Massachusetts
residence, the Democratic candidate and

wife stoically waited out the return.

And now begins the time of waiting as
dusk falls over Hyannisport.

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

This will be no sweep.

This is to be touch and go.

Nixon leads by a shade in popular votes.

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

to make a man president.

Minute after minute, hour after hour,
the Kennedys wait for decision on these

hair -breadth races.

And none comes.

Shortly after 3 in the morning East
Coast time, The networks bring the

the picture of the vice president.

While there are still some results still
to come in, if the present trend

continues, Mr.

Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, will be the
next president of the United States.

Now my wife and I prepare for a new
administration and for a new baby. Thank

you.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the long
campaign comes to an end, a successful

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

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

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.

Look tough, believe it or not.

But Jack was calm.

And Jack said, I've got my

Bobby.

My Bobby.

Bobby played cool.

My father was strongly in favor of my
being Attorney General.

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

felt that it might be nice to have
somebody around that he could discuss

with. For that reason, I did it.

He has proven his ability.

in almost 10 years of public service.

I am pleased to accept the position of
the Attorney's Generalship of the United

States. I understand and realize the
great problems and difficulties that

be facing all of us in that position.

There was a lot of 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.

That building across the street there is
the U .S. 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.

Bobby was not necessarily satisfied.

with the way things were functioning.

So he sort of re -engineered the
Department of Justice.

After the election, he invited me in,
and we had a long interview, and I

his special assistant.

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

coming in and commanding and handling
difficult problems.

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 all

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

Hello?

I think you got the wrong number.

Okay, all right.

Nobody had to ask for loyalty.

Robert Kennedy invoked from everybody
who worked for him a sense of loyalty

a sense that his invitation to
participate and to lead was to invite

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

and something has to be done about it
and the only thing that's going to be

is by the American people and those
charged with authority taking some major

steps and doing them now.

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

way around him. Let's get Hoffa. Let's
get the mafia. Let's get anybody that

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 a door, raids,
suppression of civil liberties.

General Kennedy, why do you disagree
with the famous judge's statement,

wiretapping is dirty business?

I don't know what to do with what you're
referring to. Robert Kennedy, he in

fact was the guy who did sign the
bugging for 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.

Lieutenant General Bobby is a very
attractive human being, but his greatest

weakness, the thing I've 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.

With the reengineering of the law
enforcement apparatus, Bobby Kennedy's

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 U .S.
attorney, Bobby was a great guy for

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

that Abraham Lincoln never planned to
allow general mixing of the races. In

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

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

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 Negroes in here.

One of the most important components of
the civil rights movement is 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
sister.

I had a feeling that President Kennedy
and his brother, the Attorney General,

Robert Kennedy, would not fully
understand what was happening and what

happened in the South.

There are injustices that exist in some
of these communities, and the white

leadership refuses to discuss, even
discuss, even meet with Negroes to

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

agreed to sit down and try to remedy
these problems. The Negroes have to show

some understanding and meet with them.

and not have demonstrations just to
demonstrate, not to demonstrate just to

their political strength, just to create
disorder without any purpose.

And the Freedom Ride of 1961 became the
first real test for the administration.

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.

You will walk into a so -called white
waiting room and maybe take seats at a

lunch counter.

You go into a restroom and you'll be
arrested.

And Robert Kennedy was saying this is
the role of the state and not the role

the Department of Justice to play.

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,

question their wisdom. I think that 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

been a bus burning, and I was terribly
concerned about that.

The situation was building up in rather
an ugly fashion.

We arrived 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 the 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.

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.

They burned some automobiles.

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

for.

And 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.

And 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 we 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

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 Montana.

The U .S. 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 U .S. Marshals will be

out of there. I don't think there's any
question that they saved a number of

lives and prevented widespread
bloodshed.

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.

In that period of time, Bobby Kennedy
and I began to develop an appreciation

one another, and I soon found myself a
guest at his home when I got to know

Ethel. and a lot of his children.

He was a great father from what I saw,
and his children roamed 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'd gotten a call from James Baldwin, a
great black writer who'd befriended the

Kennedys. He said, I'm coming to New
York and I would like to bring a little

group of black people together to talk
with Bobby.

Baldwin suspected that here was an
opportunity for a very willing

know more about what's going on.

I think the one who's 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.

Bobby offered his apartment that they
had on Central Park South, and we got to

his apartment, we had a lovely meal, and
he was a... gracious host, and

everything he said 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

civil rights activist, said to Bobby,
I'm out of here. I want nothing to do

this.

What do you...

What's your game?

I mean, he just ripped it to the bone.

And it kind of shocked Bobby.

Jerome took the position that he, 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.

It was a great shock to me.

The Attorney General, Mr. Robert
Kennedy, did not know that I would have

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 do, which
cannot

liberate me.

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 you've got to ask yourself,
the white population of this country

has got to ask itself, have I met the
nigger here?

And you invented him. You, the white
people, invented him.

And 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. 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

of the United States, is far more
responsible for the unfortunate ratio of

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 got elected by just a gnat's eyebrow.

There's large -scale unemployment.

There are the continuing upsets over
desegregation.

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

decision and saw it fail.

The air and sea invasion of Cuba is
crushed to the Bay of Pigs.

What, you're down to 70 %? Yeah.

Gallup -O. When was that?

Oh, about two days ago.

Oh, I didn't see it. Yeah.

It went 76 % to 70.

Yeah, I didn't see Gallup -O. Was this
in the Post?

I don't know what paper. I read it going
up on the plane Wednesday or Thursday.

We've dropped 6 % in a month, haven't
we?

January. Boy, since that virus comes
back.

Okay.

The question of whether the president is
doing his job right is one of the most

difficult that 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.

11 .45 a .m. The men whom the President
has summoned begin to arrive at the

White House.

Secretary of State Russ.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General
Taylor, Vice President Johnson, Defense

Secretary McNamara, CIA Director McCone,
Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

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

invade Cuba.

This was the closest that the United
States has ever come to nuclear

conflagration. And John and Robert
Kennedy stood alone.

Talk about difficult negotiations.

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

Robert Kennedy had a shrewd sense of
diplomacy, something that I really

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

were open to him as president.

He offers this to you. I haven't refined
it at all, but he offers this

arrangement that he will withdraw the
base in Cuba for assurances that we

intend to leave the base.

The question of the Turkish base is
something that has to be brought that

There should be disarmament of the
Turkish base.

He's saying, if you get yours out of
Turkey, we'll get out of it.

From the Kremlin comes the Soviet
response.

A 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. Across the world
goes a long sigh of relief.

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

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

It 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.

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.

Governor George Wallace made a campaign
promise to stand in the doorway himself

to prevent two Negro students from
registering at the University of

Kids carrying anti -Kennedy signs
appeared in front of the Capitol before

Attorney General arrived. For a closed
conference, the signs read Mississippi

murderer, Kennedy kosher and Khrushchev,
Washington, D .C., 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

I don't have no objection to our remarks
being recorded here, do you? Whatever

you like.

You might save this conversation for
posterity.

Do you think it would be so horrifying
to have a Negro attend the University of

Alabama? I think it's horrifying for the
federal courts and the central

government.

To rewrite all the law and force upon
people that which they don't want.

The government, it's not the government.
We're not rewriting the law. The

federal courts have made a decision. The
federal courts rewrote the law on the

matter of integration and segregation.
For a hundred years, they said we could

have segregated schools.

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

any bona fide integration anyplace in
the country. You know that.

In fact, you don't have it in
Washington.

Virginia. Why don't the government make
all them officials come back to Virginia

and Maryland and go to school in
Washington?

I've seen a lot of ditties throughout
the world, Governor, that aren't

controlled by white people.

Not controlled by the white people, but
they're not controlled by neighbors.

Oh, yeah. I've seen a lot of those.

I have nothing against people because of
their color.

My children right now are being nursed
by colored folks. I just don't believe

social and education mixing.

I will never myself submit voluntarily
to any integration of any school system

in Alabama.

We knew

there was going to be a struggle with
Governor Wallace, so we went to see

and asked 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 had a couple people

in Mississippi.

And I said, well, I want to film
Alabama.

And Lovie said, okay.

And so we made Crisis.

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, I'll call it to
you.

Hey, General.

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

General Graham gets there.

Now, I'm not very much in favor of
picking the governor up and moving him

the way. I think it would be much better
if we could develop some system. You

have enough people just to push him
aside.

I just want you all to be sure that
we're not going to let anybody who

desecrated this university.

Because you've got agitators.

The provocateurs who come from outside
this state, who themselves want to stir

up some violence in order to hurt our
cause.

And if he still refuses, then Nick
Katzenbach will say that we got this

order and we have to go through on a
legal basis. He's made the test. This

matter should be determined in courts.
It shouldn't be determined out here.

He's had this...

and just let him go through, or
otherwise we're going to have to take

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

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

Pushing? We'll be pushing a little bit.

Just having somebody stand in front of
him and try to walk through the three

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

other doors.

Obviously. Let's cut this now.

To manage his strategy on the scene in
Alabama, Robert Kennedy is sending his

deputy attorney general, Nicholas
Katzenbach, to Tuscaloosa.

Well, 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

fact that he has been forcibly removed.

Want to say hello to Kerry?

Yeah.

Hi, Carrie. How are you, dear?

How are you doing?

Are you at our house?

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

Okay, say goodbye.

Say goodbye.

Goodbye.

Goodbye. Hello?

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

wouldn't take it too... I mean, almost
dismiss him as being...

rather a second -rate figure for you.

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.

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 U .S.
attorney.

I've come here to ask you now for an
unequivocal assurance that you will not

entry to these students, to William
Malone and to James Hood, and that you

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
statement that you are going to stand in

that door. Governor George Wallace of
Alabama has stood in the schoolhouse

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,
Simon?

The executive order, yeah. Right now?

Okay, okay.

And they move to the campus.

Brigadier General Henry Graham arrives
to tell the governor, it's my sad duty

ask you to step aside on orders of the
President of the United States.

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.

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

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... by 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

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

these literacy tests.

Well, I would say that if a person has
completed the sixth grade and hasn't

learned to read and write, they're not
to be allowed to vote.

Do you have a school system in North
Carolina that you complete the sixth

and you can't read or write?

And I think that we should do something.
The federal government has a

responsibility to all of our citizens to
make sure that they have the right to

exercise their franchise when it's being
denied to them because of the fact that

they happen to be of a Negro race.

He didn't mind getting into a battle
where victory wasn't assured, but he was

prepared to fight.

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

remedy this situation, Mr. 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.

A march in Washington, D .C. It's
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.

revolution that is keeping this nation.

Get in and stay in the streets of every
city, every village and helmet of this

nation until true freedom comes.

We must get in this revolution and
complete the revolution.

On the Delta of Mississippi, in
Southwest Georgia, in the Black Belt of

in Harlem, in Chicago, Detroit,
Philadelphia, and all over this nation,

Black Mass is on the march for Darwin's
freedom.

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.

We knew that if there was ever 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.

A flash from Dallas.

President Kennedy is dead. A bullet
wound.

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

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.

When I got to the airport and I looked
over in the corner there by an old

there was somebody walking up and down.

I walked over. It was Bobby Kennedy by
himself.

He was crying.

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

Everybody was saying, Bob, we're all
crying. We're all crying.

The world is crying.

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.