Robert F. Kennedy won the California primary on June 4, 1968 and then was shot on this day in that same year. He died the following day, June 6, 1968. The above is Ted Kennedy’s eulogy for his brother. As a side note, I’m not thrilled with all of the images in this video, but it’s better than the others that I’ve found, which all seem to include soaring soundtracks. That said, the text and delivery are remarkable, perhaps especially so because Senator Kennedy is now ailing. Especially moving, I think, is the section — beginning around the 3:00 mark — in which Teddy reads a speech that Bobby gave in South Africa in 1966.


4 comments
June 5, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Ben Alpers
There’s a quite good website devoted entirely to RFK’s 1966 visit to South Africa, which includes recordings, and texts, of many of his speeches there, as well as a film clip of the famous introduction of his speech at the University of Cape Town.
June 5, 2008 at 12:46 pm
ari
Wow, that’s really awesome. Thanks, Ben.
June 5, 2008 at 4:17 pm
ac
I liked the interview with Pete Hamill about RFK on NPR the other day. It gives a sense of what his personal relationships were like, with Hamill, and with John Frankenheimer, and of their guilt about encouraging him to run.
June 5, 2008 at 6:44 pm
has it been that long? by surya yalamanchili’s weblog
[...] A favorite blog, eotw, linked to this video today. While watching it I almost spit up. It’s a youtube video (below) [...]