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KENNEDY, Robert Francis (1925-1968)
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Senate Years of Service: 1965-1968

KENNEDY, ROBERT FRANCIS, (Brother of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Edward Moore Kennedy, grandson of John Francis Fitzgerald, uncle of Patrick J. Kennedy, and father of Joseph Patrick Kennedy II), a Senator from New York; born in Boston, Suffolk County, Mass., November 20, 1925; graduated from Milton (Mass.) Academy; served in the United States Navy Reserve 1944-1946; graduated from Harvard University in 1948 and from the University of Virginia Law School in 1951; admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1951; attorney, Criminal Division, Department of Justice 1951-1952; campaign manager for John F. Kennedy's election to the United States Senate in 1952; assistant counsel, Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations 1953; assistant counsel, Hoover Commission 1953; chief counsel to the minority, Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations 1954, and chief counsel and staff director 1955; chief counsel of Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field 1957-1960; campaign manager for John F. Kennedy's election to the Presidency in 1960; Attorney General of the United States from January 1961, until his resignation September 3, 1964, to be a candidate for the United States Senate; elected as a Democrat from New York to the United States Senate and served from January 3, 1965, until his death; died from the effects of an assassin's bullet at Los Angeles, Calif., June 6, 1968, while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination; interment in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.

Alabama Department of Archives and History
Montgomery, AL
Papers: 1 letter in Frank W. Boykin papers, 1911-1972; and letters in the Sam Englehartt and John M. Patterson papers.
Berea College
Southern Appalachian Archives
Berea, KY
Papers: Photographs documenting Kennedy's visit to Appalachia in 1968 in Appalachian Volunteers audiovisual materials, 1964-1968.
Broadcast Pioneers Library
University of Maryland Hornbake Library
College Park, MD
Papers: 29 audiotapes (1960-1972) in Westinghouse Broadcasting Company collection, 1945-1981.
California State Archives
Sacramento, CA
Papers: In Los Angeles Police Department records of the Wolfer Board of Inquiry (1971); and Special Unit Senator including trial exhibits (1968-1969, 1975), re-investigative files (1974-1978), physical evidence (1968), magnetic tapes (1968), stenotype notes (1968-1969), interviews (1968-1969), reporter's transcripts (1968-1969), Sirhan family files (1968-1969), conspiracy investigation files (1968-1969), case preparation files (1968-1969), legal files (1968-1969), vehicle reports (1968), tape summaries (1968), transcripts (1968-1969), reports (1968-1969), photographs (1968-1969), phone call summaries (1968), news media files (1968-1969), medical reports (1968), letters (1968-1972) investigative field notes (1968), final reports (1969, 1985-1986), interviews (1968-1969), polygraph reports (1968-1969), FBI Indexes and Reports (1968-1969), evidence files (1968), rosters (1968), crime reports (1968), broadcasts and teletypes (1968-1969), arrest reports (1968), office files (1968-1969), and card index (1968-1969).
Oral History: Discussed in interviews with Philip L. Soto (1988); Nell Soto (1988); and Thomas M. Rees (1987).
Columbia University
Oral History Project
New York, NY
Oral History: Discussed in interviews with Edward Costikyan; Elizabeth Ives; Eugene Goldman (1989); and John L. Siegenthaler (1974).
Columbia University
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
New York, NY
Papers: Correspondence in Paul R. Hays papers, ca. 1910-1980; Lenore Marshall papers, 1887-1980; Edward N. Costikyan papers, 1952-1985; Whitney M. Young papers, 1960-1977; Eugene H. Nickerson papers, 1955-1970; League of Women Voters of the City of New York records, 1919-1979; Frank Smithwick Hogan papers, [ca.1920]-1975; Stephen Anestis Hermides papers, 1964-1981; National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee records, 1951-1985; and Edith Altschul Lehman papers, [ca. 1963-1976].
Cornell University
Labor Management Documentation
Ithaca, NY
Papers: In David Lawrence Cole correspondence, 1946-1977; and National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees records, 1938-1974 (bulk 1950-1974).
Oral History: In National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, Moe Foner interview (1975-1981).
Cornell University
Rare Books and Manuscript Collections
Ithaca, NY
Papers: In George J. Hecht papers, [ca.1915]-1974; Charles Abrahams papers, 1923-1970; and Richard J. Schaap papers, [1962-1969].
Duke University
Special Collections Library
Durham, NC
Papers: Correspondence in Basil Lee Whitener papers, 1889-1968.
Georgetown University
Special Collections
Washington, DC
Papers: Correspondence and papers on the 1964 New York senatorial race in Archives of the Fair Campaign Practices Committee, 1954-1976.
Harvard University
Pusey Library
Cambridge, MA
Papers: Correspondence in Seymour Edwin Harris papers, 1930-1974.
Indiana State Library
Indianapolis, IN
Papers: In Matthew E. Welsh papers, 1941-1978. Access restricted.
John F. Kennedy Library
Boston, MA
Papers: 1957-1959. Ca. 100 feet. Materials generated as counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field, 1957-1959.
Papers: 1937-1968. 85 linear feet. Chiefly personal files, working files, and political files, including material as counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor and Management Field and notes and drafts of his book The Enemy Within (1960). Finding aid.
Papers: 1961-1964. 120 linear feet. Attorney general papers including correspondence, desk diaries, books, classified file, personal file, speeches, telephone logs and messages and trip file. Finding aid. Also 728 microfilm reels of Department of Justice Records, 1961-1963. Originals at the National Archives and Records Administration.
Papers: 1964-1968. 819 linear feet. Senate papers including 1964 campaign material, correspondence, legislative subject files, speeches, press releases, trip files, photographs and memorabilia. Finding aid.
Papers: 1968. 364 linear feet. Letters, cards, poems, essays, musical scores, pamphlets and other tributes, occasioned by the death of Robert Kennedy.
Papers: 1968. 72 linear feet. Presidential campaign papers.
Additional Papers: In Thomas M. Johnston papers, 1966-1972; Walter Sheridan papers, 1957-1972 (closed); William J. Vanden Heuvel papers, 1966-1968; Adam Walinsky papers, 1964-1968; Frank Mankiewicz papers, 1962-1978; John S. Stillman papers, 1960-1968; Kirby Jones papers, 1963-1974; David L. Hackett papers, 1960-1968; Peter B. Edelman paprs, 1964-1968; Jerry Bruno papers, 1958-1971 (bulk 1960-1971); Barbara Coleman papers, 1959-1968; Milton Gwirtzman papers, 1956-1969; and Abram Chays papers, 1961-1972.
Oral History: 1964, 1965, 1967. 991 pages. Portions closed.
Knox College
Seymour Library
Galesburg, IL
Papers: 1 letter (June 25, 1964) in Sang autograph collection, 1751-1954.
Library of Congress
Manuscript Division
Washington, DC
Papers: 1968. 70 teletype tapes. Also correspondence in Simon Ernest Sobeloff papers, 1882-1973.
Minnesota Historical Society
St. Paul, MN
Oral History: December 14, 1964 and March 30, 1970. 150 pages and 57 pages. Discussed in interviews with Hubert H. Humphrey focusing on Humphrey's career as it related to John and Robert Kennedy. Originals in John F. Kennedy Library.
Mississippi State University
Mitchell Memorial Library
Mississippi State, MS
Papers: 2 letters (1966, 1968) in the Carter papers.
New York City
Municipal Archives
New York, NY
Papers: In WNYC collection of broadcast recordings, 1938-1970. Advance notice required.
New York Times Archives
New York, NY
Papers: In Clifton Daniel papers, 1955-1977.
Providence College
Phillips Memorial Library
Providence, RI
Papers: 5 items (1965) in John O. Pastore papers; and correspondence in John Edward Fogarty papers, 1939-1967.
Radcliffe College
Schlesinger Library
Cambridge, MA
Papers: In Ruth Proskauer Smith papers, 1959-1975; Mary Elizabeth Switzer papers, 1922-1973; and Margaret Louise Murray Blizard papers, 1929-1985.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
Hyde Park, NY
Papers: Correspondence in James H. Rowe papers, 1924-1983.
Scott E. Webber Collection
Stony Point, NY
Oral History: Mentioned in a James A. Farley interview.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Archives Division
Madison, WI
Papers: In Joseph R. Starobin papers, 1932-1979; William W. Finlator papers, 1935-1992, on 21 microfilm reels; James I. Loeb papers, 1937-1975; Gore Vidal papers, 1888-1982; Dore Schary papers, 1920-1980; Ed Sullivan papers, 1920-1974; Marlene Sanders papers, 1933, 1957-1991; David Schoenbrun papers, 1963-1978; John B. Oakes papers, 1932-1969; Dick Gregory interview, 1968; David Finkelstein papers, 1964-1966; Emile de Antonio papers, 1868-1989 (closed); Creed Black papers, 1943-1990; and Patrick J. Lucey papers, 1941-1985.
University of Iowa Libraries
Special Collections Department
Iowa City, IA
Papers: 1957-1961. 4 letters. Fiinding aid.
University of Michigan
Bentley Historical Library
Ann Arbor, MI
Papers: Correspondence in Marvin M. Meerse papers, 1943-1978; George Murphy papers, 1911-1961; Rebecca Shelley papers, 1890-1984; Margaret Bayne Price papers, 1918-1969; John Parker Huber papers, 1970; and Cash Asher papers, 1922-1967.
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Atkins Library
Charlotte, NC
Papers: Correspondence in Stanford Raynold Brookshire papers, 1960-1972.
University of Virginia
School of Law Archives
Charlottesville, VA
Papers: Correspondence in Frederick Deane Goodwin Ribble papers, 1920-1965.
Yale University Libraries
Manuscripts and Archives
New Haven, CT
Papers: In Chester Bowles papers, 1923-1970; Ogden Rogers Reid papers, 1925-1982; Alexander M. Bickel papers, 1950-1975; and Dwight Macdonald papers, 1865-1984 (1920-1978).
Research Libraries Information Network In addition to the institutions listed above, items are also cataloged in collections at: Agudath Israel of America, Orthodox Jewish Archives, New York, NY; Congregation Shearith Israel, New York, NY; Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; Emory University, Special Collections, Atlanta, GA; Harvard Law School Library, Cambridge, MA; Jewish Theological Seminary of America Library, New York, NY; Manhattanville College Archives, Purchase, NY; Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America Archives, New York, NY; Stanford University Library, Stanford, CA; Syracuse University, George Arents Library, Syracuse, NY; Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA; Tulane University, Armistad Research Center, New Orleans, LA; University of Michigan, Rare Book Library, Ann Arbor, MI; University of Missouri, Western Historical Manuscript Collections, St. Louis, MO; University of Oklahoma, Carl Albert Center, Norman, OK; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC; University of Toledo Library, Toledo, OH; University of Virginia, Alderman Library, Charlottesville, VA; Vassar College Library, Poughkeepsie, NY; and Wayne State University, Walter P. Reuther Library, Detroit, MI.

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  • Bickers, William Patrick Michael. "Robert Kennedy and the American Press.'' Ph.D. dissertation, Ball State University, 1984.
  • Boomhower, Ray E. Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.
  • Bohrer, John R. The Revolution of Robert Kennedy: From Power to Protest After JFK. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2017.
  • Bryan, Fernald J. "Joseph McCarthy, Robert Kennedy, and the Greek Shipping Crisis: A Study of Foreign Policy Rhetoric." Presidential Studies Quarterly 24 (Winter 1994): 93-104.
  • Burner, David, and Thomas R. West. The Torch Is Passed: The Kennedy Brothers and American Liberalism. New York: Atheneum, 1984.
  • Cutbirth, Craig Warren. "A Strategic Perspective: Robert F. Kennedy's Dissent on the Viet Nam War, 1966-1968.'' Ph.D. dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 1976.
  • Davies, Tom Adam. "Black Power in Action: The Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, Robert F. Kennedy, and the Politics of the Urban Crisis." Journal of American History 100:3 (December 2013): 736-760.
  • Dooley, Brian. Robert Kennedy: The Final Years. New York: St. Martin's, 1996.
  • Gardner, Gerald C. Robert Kennedy in New York. New York: Random House, 1965.
  • Goldfarb, Ronald L. Perfect Villains, Imperfect Heroes: Robert F. Kennedy's War Against Organized Crime. New York: Random House, 1995.
  • Gorey, Hays. Robert Kennedy, the Last Campaign. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993.
  • Guthman, Edwin O. We Band of Brothers. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
  • Guthman, Edwin O., and C. Richard Allen, eds. RFK: Collected Speeches. New York: Viking, 1993.
  • Guthman, Edwin O., and Jeffrey Shulman, eds. Robert Kennedy, in His Own Words: The Unpublished Recollections of the Kennedy Years. New York: Bantam, 1988.
  • Halberstam, David. The Unfinished Odyessey of Robert Kennedy. New York: Random House, 1969.
  • Hall, Sue G., comp. The Quotable Robert F. Kennedy. Anderson, SC: Droke House, 1967.
  • Katzenbach, Nicholas DeB. Some of It Was Fun: Working with RFK and LBJ. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008.
  • Kennedy, Robert F. The Enemy Within. 1960. Reprint. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982.
  • ___. The Pursuit of Justice. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.
  • ___. Rights for Americans. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1964.
  • ___. Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1969.
  • ___. To Seek a Newer World. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1967.
  • ___. "We Must Meet Our Duty and Convince the World that We Are Just Friends and Brave Enemies.'' New York: Harper & Row, 1962.
  • Kimball, Penn. Bobby Kennedy and the New Politics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968.
  • Lester, David, and Irene Lester. Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Folk Hero. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1986.
  • Matthews, Chris. Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017.
  • Meacham, Ellen. Delta Epiphany: Robert F. Kennedy in Mississippi. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2018.
  • Navasky, Victor S. Kennedy Justice. New York: Atheneum, 1971.
  • Newcomb, Joan I., comp. John F. Kennedy: An Annotated Bibliography. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1977. Includes a section on Robert F. Kennedy.
  • Newfield, Jack. Robert Kennedy: A Memoir. New York: Dutton, 1969.
  • Palermo, Joseph A. In His Own Right: The Political Odyssey of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.
  • Roberts, Allen. Robert Francis Kennedy: Biography of a Compulsive Politician. Brookline Village, MA: Branden Press, 1984.
  • Rogers, Warren. When I Think of Bobby: A Personal Memoir of the Kennedy Years. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.
  • Ryan, Dorothy, and Louis J. Ryan, comps. The Kennedy Family of Massachusetts. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981.
  • Sable, Martin H. A Bio-Bibliography of the Kennedy Family. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1969.
  • Salinger, Pierre, ed. "An Honorable Profession'': A Tribute to Robert F. Kennedy. New York: Main Street Books, 1993.
  • Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. Robert Kennedy and His Times. 1978. 2 vols. Reprint, 2 vols in one. New York: Ballantine Books, 1996.
  • Schmitt, Edward R. President of the Other America: Robert Kennedy and the Politics of Poverty. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010.
  • Shannon, William Vincent. The Heir Apparent: Robert Kennedy and the Struggle for Power. New York: Macmillan Co., 1967.
  • Shesol, Jeff. Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1997.
  • Sorensen, Theodore C. The Kennedy Legacy. 1969. Special ed. New York: Macmillan Co., 1993.
  • Stein, Jean. American Journey: The Times of Robert Kennedy. Edited by George Plimpton. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970.
  • Thimmesch, Nick, and O. William Johnson. Robert Kennedy at 40. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1965.
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  • U.S. Congress. Memorial Services in the Congress of the United States and Tributes in Eulogy of Robert Francis Kennedy, Late a Senator from the State of New York. 90th Cong., 2d sess., 1968. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1968.
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