How Did Robert F Kennedy Influence Jfk's Presidential Speech

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On April 4th, 1968 Senator Robert F. Kennedy was campaigning to be the Democratic Presidential Nominee. As he was boarding his plane to Indianapolis, he was told that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the leader of the Civil Right’s movement had been shot. When he landed, he was told that Dr. King had been pronounced dead. Even though the Indianapolis police warned him that they could not guarantee his safety , Kennedy delivered an un-scripted speech, which was ranked as the seventeenth most important speech in American Politics . In just over six minutes, Kennedy was able to do what most candidates were never able to do; talk about a severely important domestic issue without pandering but with sensitivity and understanding. He consoled and inspired …show more content…

From a young age, Robert preferred to interpret events in his own way, refusing to default to his father’s and brothers’ opinions . During his father’s time as U.S. Ambassador to Great Britian, Robert became more pious, attending Church often and even convincing his father to financially support some priests who were struggling to afford basic necessities . Robert’s increased religious devotion paralleled the responsibility to be devoted to his family’s political careers. This feeling of responsibility lead him to serve for years under his brother …show more content…

But although “John Kennedy was determined to go down in history as ‘Great President’ but…it did not occur to him that greatness could be found in Lincolnesque steps to intervene in the area of civil rights.” Robert was no different, and Jack Newfield of the New York Post said that the “consistent moralistic and emotional root of Kennedy’s politics” motivated his crusades. Newfield also contested that “Kennedy always hared Evil with a certain and principled passion.” However, in the beginning of the 1960s, racism has not caught the attention of Robert Kennedy as something to be considered as a huge issue. Previously he had shown a rather distinct opinion of the matter. In 1951, Robert was the head of the Student Legal Forum, a panel responsible for brining student speakers to the University of Virginia Law School. Robert extended an invitation to Dr. Ralph Bunche, the United Nations appointed mediator of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Dr. Bunche refused to accept the invitation if the crowd was to remain segregated, as dictated by Virginia State Law. Kennedy, in order to allow for speech to occur as planned pushed for a resolution to allow integrated seating, “[labeling] the student council’s stance ‘morally indefensible’” and when asked to compromise by his fellow students, he yelled “you’re all gutless.” Eventually, the Law School Dean and

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