The months following the death of President Kennedy were harrowing for Bobby Kennedy. He had lost the will to go on and seemed desperately alone as he struggled with his overwhelming grief. Part of the tragedy for Bobby Kennedy was that he remained alone as the keeper of the secrets, an added burden as he tried to cope with both guilt and fear while he cast about in his mind for the people responsible for the death of his brother.

Serving out the remainder of his time in the Justice Department he was a sad figure. He seemed as though he were Attorney General in name only now, having lost his powerful position as second only to the President in the corridors of power in Washington, his continuing role as Attorney General seemed to be stifling him. Having never had an easy relationship with Lyndon Johnson, in the months after the assassination this had deteriorated to the point of open animosity. Despite this he was aware that like Jack before him after Joe Jr's untimely death, it was now his turn to pick up the mantle of his slain brother and continue his unfinished work. He let it be known that he was interested in seeking the Vice President's spot on Johnson's ticket in the November elections of 1964. Johnson was horrified, for he felt that he was continually compared to the late President, unfairly for the most part and he was conscious that much of his life was spent living in President Kennedy's shadow.

He had never liked Bobby and he certainly didn't want to put him on the ticket. In 1964 he was going to be running against Jack's ghost and although having Bobby on the ticket would guarantee votes from a public still in shock after the death of President Kennedy he was aware that this was opening a door that would effectively hand the Presidential nomination to Bobby in 1968. Johnson moved quickly and decisively by announcing that he would not choose a member of his cabinet as his running mate in the forthcoming election.

Effectively sidelined Bobby had to turn his thoughts elsewhere and in doing so he realised that he would either have to enter a gubernatorial or Senatorial race from where he could gain the necessary experience to make the inevitable bid for the White House. Having watched his brothers carrying out their senate duties he felt that this was the right place for him, he would not only gain more experience of legislature but he could enhance his profile and build politically advantageous relationships. He bought a residence in New York as he decided to make a bid for the cities Senate race by running against the republican candidate Kenneth Keating. The campaign was a disorganised affair to begin with and Bobby was not the effective speaker and campaigner that Jack had been. Although he spoke with an accent similar to his late brothers bringing people back to the golden days of Camelot and the New Frontier, it soon became very apparent that this was a man not quite comfortable in his own skin, uneasy about public speaking and without the same easy charm of his brother. The highlight of his campaign was an occasion where Bobby faced a group of hostile students at the University of Columbia. The students were accusing him of carpet bagging and buying his way into the states elections. Faced with the open animosity Bobby finally came alive again finding his voice and his argumentative side came to the fore. He argued back and forth with the students, comfortable now that he was back in the familiar territory that confrontation brings. Where Jack could deliver a speech with grace and style, Bobby was better in heated situations where he was allowed the freedom to challenge and be challenged. The footage from this successful campaign stump was shown over and over again across televisions throughout the state and was to change the shape of the Senate race for Bobby to such an extent that he was to win with a very large majority of the popular vote.

Despite the comfortable win Bobby's confidence was still low. Throughout the campaign he felt that the people of New York had voted for Jacks memory, or at worst for him but only out of sympathy. He was still emersed in his grief, a changed man, looking for solace in the works of poets and writers. He was quieter, to his family and friends he seemed fragile and vulnerable and he carried around a book called 'The Greek Way' given to him by Jacqueline Kennedy thumbing through it constantly looking for meaning as well as comfort. He continually quoted his brother, though never calling him Jack. After the assassination he would never use his brothers name but rather would refer to him as President Kennedy. He shied away from personal reminiscences with people, seemingly finding the memories too painful. It was this forlorn individual who with a heavy heart took his place beside his younger brother Ted in the Senate as he strove to begin the rest of his life without his brother beside him.

In the years following Jack's death Bobby had undertaken some dangerous escapades. When the Canadian government named a mountain in the Yukon Territory for his late brother, he along with Jim Whitaker (the first American to climb Mt. Everest) and several other climbers made plans to scale the as yet unconquered peaks. Despite the fact that he had no previous experience, he took the challenge and though at times feeling ill from the thin air, he persevered despite his fears. As they reached the summit, the climbers held back allowing him to make the last couple of feet on his own. Here he dropped to his knees, placed a PT 109 clip in the ground along with the Kennedy family flag and prayed for his late brother.
He continued his risk taking, attempting the most dangerous feats he could find, it was almost as though the adrenalin rush made him feel alive again removing his grief even for a short time. Nothing was too dangerous for him, he looked for the most dangerous ski slopes, spent time racing dangerous rapids, trekked through unknown jungles and continued to take his boat out in the strongest storms without even charting a course. He constantly courted death and it seemed to those watching that in some way he was defying the Gods and tempting fate.

Throughout this time he worked hard at his duties and while he was bored with the slow pace of the Senate he appreciated that from here he could begin to make a difference and so he began a series of programmes that many of his senior colleagues would have been proud to call their own.
He was slowly becoming a beacon of hope to the minority groups not just in his state but also throughout the country. Having always had a good understanding of the problems facing these people and of their struggles to survive and make a life for themselves, now through his grief and loneliness he was able to feel a deep empathy with these people. This empathy would soon see Bobby Kennedy change for the better as he began to put in place his own dreams and aspirations.
A man of deep feelings and emotions he faced up to these challenges head on. He had continued his crusades on behalf of the black community since the early days of Jack's presidency and was admired for his courage in supporting the Civil Rights movement across the country at a time of increasing unrest. He challenged people to see that when they refused to accept de-segregation they were infringing people's basic human rights. He courted many black political activists and asked for their help as he attempted to educate himself about the Civil rights movement and it's history.

During 1966 another minority group came to his attention, as part of this he lent his support to Cesar Chavez when the'farm workers struggle' threatened to be squashed by the unions. In 1965 over 2000 mainly Mexican field hands based in California took strike action. Cesar Chavez had called for a boycott against Schenley industries, a liquor producing company who owned one of the largest grape ranches in California.
Despite the strike action taken, the teamsters brought in teams of strikebreakers who took on the work, receiving better pay that the field hands ever had. Bobby hearing of the struggles flew to California for the hearings, and to give his backing to Chavez. He took a commonly combative approach when dealing with the local authorities that were making life difficult for the strikers and took the opportunity to publicly declare his support of the movement even going so far as to help man a picket line. For many a politician this was risky business, for though on one hand you may gain votes from the people who admire your stance, on the other hand you risk losing the votes of local business and their backers. For Robert Kennedy however there was no question of what was politically correct, this was just a classic case of good vs. bad, the votes and the image didn't matter to Robert Kennedy, here was a man who was growing in stature and who was finally beginning to find his own way though life.

Still he continued to carry on President Kennedy's work and in doing so he began what he believed would have been one of his late brothers programmes in the next term, the War on Poverty. Bobby travelled widely throughout the country, visiting poor Indian reservations, the slums of Harlem and the terror and poverty that were the Bronx. His stomach would recoil from the smell and the filth and dirt that he would encounter would leave him speechless. He found it difficult to believe that in a country as affluent as the United States such poverty could exist.
But these visits were not just politically advantageous photo opportunities; these were events that affected Bobby Kennedy profoundly. He had grown up in a home where there was significant wealth and the conditions he found when he went into these rat infested homes caused him deep anguish. He would sit with parents listening to the struggles they faced and he would pick up and cuddle their sick children whose bellies were swollen from starvation and who were covered in sores from the dismal conditions they were forced to grow up in.

Travelling throughout New York he was witness to some of the worst inner city slums he had ever seen. As a result he began what would become one of his greatest legacies - the Bedford-Stuyvesant project in Brooklyn. He set about attracting industry into the area, which in turn would provide much needed jobs. Following this they would provide adequate housing for the mainly black or Puerto Rican communities that lived in the area. He envisaged a place where people could live in good accommodation and go to work each day in employment where they were adequately paid for their services. He believed that work was good for the soul and that this project would return pride to the hearts of the people within its midst. This project was courageous and ahead of its time. It is a program that is still close to the heart of the Kennedy family who frequently visit to keep up to date with its progress.

Despite all these undertakings Bobby was considering his future. He knew that the Senate was not for him, he watched his younger brother Ted admiringly as he saw the impact that he had made so far during his tenure in the Senate. Having been handed Jacks old senate seat in 1962, Teddy had knuckled down and begun to work his way through the day-to-day activities at the senate. An affable character he built strong relationships with his colleagues and peers and was becoming very well respected for his able management of his role and his broad-minded beliefs. Bobby on the other hand felt suffocated, he was aware that it was only a matter of time before he was expected to take up the inevitable challenge to reclaim the Presidency.

Throughout the country people in minority groups looked to him as though he were a saviour, in the black community he was elevated to a position like that of Dr. Martin Luther King, unprecedented for a white man. He had surrounded himself with young idealistic men not unlike him who not only expected him to fight the wrongs in the country but also demanded he do so. He continued to struggle with his public speaking engagements but this too only seemed to endear him further to people, as there was something in this young man that convinced them that despite his apparent discomfort he had strong feelings and was prepared to act on them. Because of this there was never a question that Bobby wouldn't run for the presidency, it was only a matter of when.

He had been scarred by his brother's death and the guilt that had come from his belief that he had contributed to his brother's assassination. He too was afraid of the damage to his family's legacy for he alone in the family knew all the secrets about Jacks illnesses, weakness for woman and the inside stories on the Presidency. He knew that he had powerful enemies in J.Edgar Hoover and Lyndon Baines Johnson. He was only too aware that a few well-timed stories leaked to the press could do untold damage to his presidential aspirations but even more importantly to his brother's memory. But despite these inner struggles and torments he knew he had to carry on. In spite of the ambition inside to reclaim the Presidency, for him there was more to it, he knew that there were causes he needed to fight and he felt a great responsibility to the people who came out to support him in their thousands. When Jack had been elected to the Presidency, the brothers had been determined that this would be a time of great change and hope and what it had brought instead had been darkness and despair. Despite the deep suffering he had endured over the years since Jacks assassination, Bobby had dug deep into his own being and had emerged ever stronger, less outwardly assured than his brothers but growing ever more confident that change was necessary in the country he loved. He began to question the American way of life, why was racism a tolerated and accepted way of life, why should babies live in conditions that could only be likened to third world conditions?, why should emigrants be forced to live in slums and accept sub standard pay and conditions if they were lucky enough to find work? and the question that haunted him - what was America going to do about the war in Vietnam?

Because of his brothers involvement in the early days of the Vietnam War this question was even more personal to Bobby Kennedy. Jack Kennedy had inherited the situation from the Eisenhower administration and continued to send advisers into the country to help in the negotiations. Though the crisis was beginning to escalate throughout the Kennedy presidency it would be under the Johnson administration that the war in Vietnam would reach crisis point. LBJ had continued to send troops into Vietnam in ever-greater numbers and in 1968 America had reached a state of deep resentment at the loss of life of their young men in a war that was not of their making.

Reluctant to speak out at first and directly confront the President, Bobby uncharacteristically avoided the issue. Despite pleas from his aides and supporters he maintained a steadfast silence on the subject. Over the past two years he had made successful trips to both Latin America and South Africa where he was treated with the same reverential treatment that any President would expect to receive and he saw his role increasingly as one of service, helping the people less fortunate than himself. With this in mind he continued to make visits to poverty stricken towns and made civil rights one of his most important issues. He knew that if he were to run for the presidency in 1968 he would undoubtedly have to run against President Johnson, a decision that would be unpopular as it would split the Democratic Party. While he procrastinated many of his own aides despaired that he would ever make a decision and when Senator Eugene McCarthy decided the time had come to make his own bid, many of the Kennedy faithful who wanted desperately to see an end to the War left to follow the candidate who was willing to tackle all the issues including Vietnam head on.

Still Bobby delayed, at once making a decision only to change his mind later on. He seemed trapped, desperate to move ahead and yet afraid of what damaging information would make its way into public knowledge if he were to announce his candidacy. Many of Jacks old friends and advisers rallied around encouraging him to face up to up his destiny and once and for all enter the race. Though he seemed unable to make the decision to run, he felt a deep resentment that many of the young people who had pledged their support to him had now turned to Senator McCarthy, the candidate who was openly attacking President Johnson on the Vietnam issue. Despite the press interest and the encouragement of his friends and family he issued a press statement saying that he would not oppose President Johnson for the nomination. Wracked with misery he endured tormented second thoughts watching the events unfold around him and seeming incapable of doing anything about it.

Part of Bobby's torment may have been that while he delayed and sat on the bench he wouldn't have to feel like a target. He knew that he was disliked in many quarters and he must have worried that he like his brother would be murdered. Despite these dark fears he openly courted death, standing on the backs of cars in the middle of a throng without any security. He seemed almost to tempt the fates entering scheduled events without any advance men ensuring his well being. America in 1968 was in turmoil, students protesting over the war and race riots were commonplace in the cities of the country at that time and the young people cried out for a leader who would have the moral courage to face these issues.

Despite his announcement throughout the early months of 1968 Bobby continued to flirt with the idea of running finally in March of that year he making a decision. It was inevitable that he would run, the time was right. For a passionate man like Robert Kennedy, the war, the inequality in the country at that time all necessitated a strong leader and he had both the human characteristics and the courage to stand up for his beliefs. His aides flocked back to him leaving the jobs that they had only recently joined fully aware of what was to come. They knew that this was a man capable of great things, a man who dreamed of a world where people could live in peace and equality. He was an idealist but he was also pragmatic, realising that this work would be long and tortuous but that it was necessary to start putting right the wrongs that were being inflicted on people throughout America and beyond.

He began what would be a frenetic four-month campaign for the democratic nomination. All the Kennedy faithful were called back into action and began to make up for the significant time lost in the early stages of their opponent's campaigns. Everywhere he went the crowds were tumultuous, screaming and clawing at him, the surge of emotion that greeted him everywhere was astonishing to watch. He reacted likewise, returning their enthusiasm with pure emotion of his own attempting to allay their fears of the future.
In the pictures of those frantic campaign stops we see a time of hope and of longing, there was an implicit trust in the faces of the young people reaching out to him, asking him to pledge his help and support for their causes. As time went by he openly attacked the issues including President Johnson's handling of Vietnam, finding his voice at last, speaking clearly and candidly about his beliefs.

The campaign was a disorganised frantic affair. Even in the stills and newsreels of those days we see a man being mobbed wherever he went. Young people in their thousands turned out to meet him, pulling at his clothes and hair, trying to reach out to him. While the young people felt they had their saviour, the older generation were fearful of the tumult, seeing only the chaos that surrounded him. For his part President Johnson was becoming more fearful of his own position. His popularity had dropped in the face of the Vietnam conflict and it looked like Eugene McCarthy would beat him in the Wisconsin primary. He had been contemplating whether he would run for re-election but had not made a final decision. With Bobby Kennedy and his mobs of people receiving mass coverage in the media he made the decision that he would not run and bowed out gracefully at the end of March 1968 when he announced live on TV that he fully intended to halt the bombing in Vietnam and that he would neither seek nor accept the Presidential nomination. President Johnson's deepest fears were coming true, he had always known that one day Bobby Kennedy would seek the Presidency for himself and he would not contemplate being beaten by a man he could not hide his hatred of. Despite his feelings about Johnson, Bobby realised that his campaign had now become much more difficult as he had just lost one of his main issues, Johnson's handling of the war.

Despite this he carried on involved in a campaign that lacked structure and organisation. He faced several difficult primaries ahead and began a marathon travel schedule to make advance visits to these states. On the night of April 4th 1968 he was due to speak to a mainly black community in Indianapolis. Before arriving at the ghetto he was told that Martin Luther King Jr had been shot and killed earlier that day. He disregarded his advisers as they attempted to cancel the appearance and instead stood in front of the thousand or so people and without any notes spoke movingly about the murder of the man these people thought of as their own.
He began quietly his voice trembling but as he grew surer of his words his voice grew louder and stronger until he delivered what was to become one of his great speeches:

For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we all have to make an effort in the United States; we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times.
My favourite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote 'In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by Drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful Grace of God.'
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.
So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that's true, but most importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love - a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.
Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and to make gentle the life of this world.
Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.'

Across the cities of the United States that night there were riots which left39 people dead and over 2500 people injured. Not in Indianapolis however, his words had touched people and they had returned to their homes to do as he had asked.

Following the events of this night people began to take notice of Bobby realising that his speeches were not just rhetoric but that there was a deep compassion in the things he said and did. Despite his own and his advisers growing fears of an attempt on his own life, he continued to meet with the throngs of supporters and continued to visit the poorer areas of each city not just as a vote collecting exercise but because these places genuinely moved him. He continued to be spontaneous, playing games with the children he met, stopping the motorcade whenever something or someone caught his attention.
Conscious of the effect he was having on the crowds and of some of the disapproving publicity he had been receiving he set about changing his speeches and speaking style. He was an idealist who dreamed of a future where compassion and unity would be at the forefront of every society. He seemed to give the gift of hope wherever he went and to whomever he met. Nevertheless he was still uncomfortable delivering his speeches, still walked with his head down and shoulders hunched, he rarely seemed happy if even for a minute and sometimes appeared more intense than ever.

The writer John Bartlow Martin described him in those days as such:
He always looked so alone too, standing up by himself on the lid of the trunk of his convertible - so alone, so vulnerable, so fragile, you feared he might break. He was thin. He did not chop the air with his hand as his brother Jack had; instead he had a little gesture with his right hand, his fist closed, the thumb sticking up a little, and he would jab with it to make a point. When he got applause he did not smile at the crowd, pleased; instead he looked down, down at the ground or at his speech, and waited till they had finished, then went on. He could take a bland generality and deliver it with such a depth of feeling that it cut like a knife. Everything he said had an edge to it.

One of his great fears had come to pass later in the campaign when the story of wiretaps on the phone of Martin Luther King Jr had been leaked to the press. As Attorney General he had come under pressure to approve of eavesdropping on the Civil Rights leader as he had been informed that King had close ties to a man with communist sympathies. In order to put an end to the argument, Kennedy approved the wiretaps, as he was confident that no recriminating evidence would be found and he would be vindicated in his assertions that King had no ties to the communist party. The story emerged in the papers towards the end of May and it was obvious Bobby's enemies had leaked it in order to test his credibility. The story was denied but there was still concern that it would do damage amongst the black voting community. Bobby was under no illusions as to where the story had been leaked from and was preparing him for more of the same.

Still he moved on with his eye always ahead on the next issue or venue. Despite his exhaustion and bouts of self-doubt and depression, the issues moved him and he was determined to continue. He arrived in California to prepare for the primary by traversing the entire state to ensure he met with all potential voting groups.
Conscious that he was missing out on much of his children's lives, he had brought six of his older children to California where he spent a day on the rides at Disneyland. His last full day alive was spent at the home of a friend, John Frankenheimer. He brought his children swimming in the surf, averting a potential tragedy by having to rescue one of his younger sons David who was caught in an undertow and almost drowned.
Later that evening he made his way into the Ambassador Hotel to enjoy the victory celebrations that were in full swing for he had won the California primary by 49% to McCarty's 41%. When he arrived the party was in full swing with staffers, volunteers and journalists all shouting his name. He had won four of the five primaries he had entered and with the final one in New York, he was very hopeful that victory was assured.

For the first time in months he looked relaxed, seeming more at ease within himself. He spoke to people telling them he felt he had made a difference, that it wasn't just Jacks memory that had seen him through. Suddenly he seemed more positive, feeling for the first time that he could win the nomination, that he stood a real chance. He entered the ballroom of the hotel around midnight to make his victory speech and thank his supporters. Standing on the stage one can see that he appeared elated with the victory and he began his speech with quips and jokes before starting into his serious message. He thanked his staffers and ended his speech with these words 'We are a great country, an unselfish country and a compassionate country. So my thanks to all of you and now it's on to Chicago and lets win there' and making a peace sign he left the stage to exit the hotel through the kitchen area.

As he made his way through the kitchen shaking hands with the staff, a young Palestinian man by the name of Sirhan Bishara Sirhan extended his arm and firing point blank into Bobby's head fired several shots. Falling to the ground holding his hands up to his head, Bobby lay there in a pool of blood, his wife Ethel at his side while all around him chaos reigned as his minders attempted to remove the gun from the hands of Sirhan.
Taken to the hospital Bobby lay in a coma throughout that night and the following day under an oxygen tent, his face black and bruised with his family by his side. Shortly before 2.00 a.m. on June 6 1968 he was pronounced dead.

Once again a nation was in mourning, his body was taken to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York where it lay in state for two days as thousands of mourners filed past.

His funeral reflected his the complexity of his life where people from the poorest ghettos and slums mourned side by side with his Senate colleagues and the farm workers from California. This was as it should have been, bringing people together out of mutual respect and admiration mourning what might have been. The funeral mass was poignant with Andy Williams singing the Battle hymn of the Republic and his brother Ted delivering a beautiful eulogy, his voice breaking with emotion as he delivered these words:

'My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life. To be remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it,saw war and tried to stop it.
        Those of us who loved him and take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.
As he said so many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:
'Some men say things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not.'

His body was taken by funeral train from New York to Washington, the journey taking nearly eight hours to complete. The railway lines were filled with people of all different colours and creeds and from all different walks of life. His casket was carried into Arlington Cemetery by candlelight and he was interred in a candlelight ceremony only feet away from his brother Jack.

Somehow he had always known that this could come to pass but despite his fear he had continued to stand up for what he believed in and that courage is what symbolises Robert Kennedy for many people. A man for whom nothing was easy but who believed so passionately that he was willing to fight and sacrifice his life to make a difference.
Despite his self-doubts somehow he continued to speak out against the worlds ills always looking forward to a time of peace and unity. We can be confident that had he lived he would have brought great change to a country that cried out for a leader at that turbulent time at the end of the sixties.