That awful day in 1968.

[lastlib]

On this day 53 years ago, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy won the California Democratic presidential primary. Moments later, walking through the hotel kitchen following his victory speech, he was fatally shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian refugee. Sen. Kennedy died 26 hours later, on June 6, 1968.



Truly one of the most tragic days in American history. An RFK presidency would have spared this nation so much suffering. No Nixon, no Watergate, a shortened war in Vietnam, stronger anti-poverty programs, probably no Reagan.......

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[49jim]

1. I remember that day....

I was 18 years old.....woke up to the news.....thought I was dreaming until reality hit.

[ShazzieB]

7. My memory is very similar.

I was also 18, and I remember waking up to the news as well. My parents had the TV on in the living room, and I could hear it from my bedroom. I remember lying in bed listening and trying to make sense out of what I was hearing. It was surreal.

[Sympthsical]

2. YouTube has a six hour video of the live ABC coverage from that night

I came across it a few weeks back and listened to it in the background while working one day. It's incredibly interesting. The 1968 version of breaking cable news.

At one point, later in the broadcast, the anchors start discussing gun control.

The more things change . . .

[ShazzieB]

8. Thanks for this.

Bookmarking for later.

[burrowowl]

77. Thanks for link

[Klaralven]

3. Just think, if he hadn't run ...

He might have had a long and influential career as NY Senator.

Gene McCarthy might have been our candidate instead of Hubert Humphrey.

[former9thward]

29. Not a chance.

Kennedy himself had no chance either. He was 150 delegates behind Humphrey after winning CA. The rest of the delegates were controlled by LBJ and the old guard.

[Klaralven]

37. Had Kennedy not got in belatedly, McCarthy would have swept the primaries

That would have made it much harder for LBJ to anoint Humphrey.

[former9thward]

39. In 1968 there were few primaries.

Only 14 states had them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries

[Klaralven]

40. Kennedy, by splitting them, made them even less impactfull

Humphrey didn't run in the primaries, and his surrogates did not do well.

[lpbk2713]

4. History can take brutal turns in a flash of an eye.

“Some men see things as they are and say, why;
I dream things that never were and say, why not.”

[secondwind]

5. Terrible, terrible day... I was a young mother with a newborn... with husband in Viet Nam...

Awful time, just AWFUL, in so many ways....

[Auggie]

6. I was about to graduate from 5th grade ...

Mom halted any and all celebrations and juvenile activities I had in mind, one of which was a squirt gun fight.

Typical 10-year old. Outstanding mom.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

9. I still vividly remember that day,

I was 21, in Vietnam when the news broke.

We were all shocked at the news.

[Chrisdutch]

10. The awful day

I'll never forget it. I was close to graduating from grammar school. I watched the wrap up from the West Coast with him giving his victory speech and I turned the TV off and went to bed right before it all happened. I'll never forget coming downstairs for breakfast the next morning and seeing my father standing, totally shocked in the middle of the kitchen and him saying to me in a muted voice, "Bobby Kennedy was shot last night." What a loss for a family and a nation.

[LittleGirl]

11. Terrible day. It remember Mom crying

I was 8 and just starting to see the realities of the civil rights movement. Mom was a liberal democrat.

[kimbutgar]

12. I remember being bed and hearing my Dad scream "no no no "really loud in the tv room

My Mother, sister and I ran into the room and saw the tv and my mother burst into tears. I was 12 years old. A week earlier Bobby was in our City and my Dad had taken us to his rally. He was sitting in the back seat of a convertible shaking hands of the people in the crowds and he shook my hand!

[electric_blue68]

49. oh, lucky you! I didn't go to the Greek Parade in NYC ...

I'm half Greek American but not into parades at that point. It's often kind of cold then at times And he was there!

I figured I'd see him when he'd campaign in NYS/C for our primary which I think was around a week or so after Cali. 😔😔😔

[kimbutgar]

61. +1

[TexasBushwhacker]

13. And Juan Romero, who cradled Bobby's head, died 50 years later

He was a Mexican immigrant.

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/04/654282422/juan-romero-busboy-who-cradled-dying-rfk-dies-at-68

[electric_blue68]

48. I remember that from last year. :( What a kind young man

[Thunderbeast]

14. I met him a week prior...

campaigning for him in Oregon as a high school sophomore.

After the killing of JFK and Martin Luther King, we became numb to the assassinations.

[electric_blue68]

50. I was going to start campaigning for him once he got to NYC ..

for our NYS primary. 😔😔😔

(a week or or so after Cali)

[Mickju]

15. I was 24 at the time, working at my first job after college.

I remember staying up all night waiting for news. I was devastated. That whole year was a horror story.

[electric_blue68]

51. one of the worst outside of the World Wars, The Depression

[AllaN01Bear]

16. now a stoopid fedral judge has decided to strike down the automatic weapons ban.

what could go wrong. i was a little boy when jfk was shot and dont remember a thing except what i see in the history books and youtube . dont remember rfk being shot either . but ,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_Hotel_%28Los_Angeles%29

https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/ambassador-hotel-demolished
jfk/rfk/mlk rip america has never been the same since . these folk tried to make a difference .

[MarineCombatEngineer]

19. Uhhh, no,

the judge did not strike down the 1986 GCA, he struck down CA's ban on AR-15's, which is not a select fire weapon, it's a semi auto, one round expended per trigger pull, just like every other semi auto in the world.

No new auto firearm has been legal to sell since 1986.

[AllaN01Bear]

20. https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142752536

[MarineCombatEngineer]

21. What the hell does that mean?

Your post claiming that the Fed. judge struck down the automatic weapons ban is pure false info,
no new automatic firearm has been allowed to be sold to civilians since 1986.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

78. A link in the post title is dead, not clickable, not an actual link. . . . . nt

[catbyte]

17. I was 12 and, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. almost 2 months before

confirmed that the world was indeed a very scary and dangerous place. I lost my childish innocence that year.

[VGNonly]

18. I dream of things that never were,

and say why not.

[Mr. Steve]

22. Very sad return

The news the RFK had been shot was what greeted me at McChord AFB as I got off the plane bringing me home from Viet Nam. Basically, it was "Welcome home and Robert Kennedy has been shot."

[electric_blue68]

52. ohhh, dear - how horrible

[Tomconroy]

23. Thank you for this thread.

I thought that no one would remember.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

24. Unfortunately I was still in Vietnam at Dong Ha when the news broke,

it was a shocking moment in my life, one I'll never forget.

[myccrider]

25. I remember...

I was 17, graduating high school in a couple of weeks.

It was such a blow. I loved Bobby and his politics. MLK had been assassinated just a couple of months before, too. Plus Vietnam. I felt such despair and grief.

[panader0]

36. Same here. I would turn 18 later that year.

[electric_blue68]

53. I was a Sophomore in HS between RFK & MLK it was so horrifically surreal

[H2O Man]

26. Recommended.

A lot more than one man died from this. I appreciate your posting this.

[Yavin4]

27. That day brought us an evil in American politics that we are still fighting today. n/t

[oasis]

41. +1

[dflprincess]

66. I really beielve that started the day JFK was killed nt

[PCIntern]

28. I was in high school

I awakened for the first time in 10 years to my mother sitting on the edge of my bed. She asked me are you awake. I replied yes what’s wrong. She gave me the news and the first thing I thought of was everything is different now.

And I was right.

[dflprincess]

30. I was in 9th grade, it was the last day of school.

We were supposed to have a final in Civics that day but our teacher, who did not hide his own distress, thought it more important we talk about it.

[electric_blue68]

54. that's a thoughtful teacher

[dflprincess]

56. Years later I found out that he had been very active in Eugene McCarthy's campaign

He was such a good teacher, that he never tipped his hand about his own opinion when we'd discuss issues in class.

The 1967-68 school year was a great time to have a Civics class. I give that teacher a lot of the credit for my getting active as he stressed the importance of an involved citizenry.

[electric_blue68]

59. That's something (respectful) keeping his preference to himself. We didn't have ...

Civics in our HS.

However my dad had me come along with him in putting political election flyers under our building's apt doors by the time I was ?12 or 13!

Both my folks were liberals, my mom even more so. The first political candidate I ever saw was (future) Mayor John V Lindsey I guess his first run get out of a car by our local park with no one else around.

After being so furious at Humphrey, I finally campaigned for him during our NYC's teachers' strike, and later in the day, and weekends.

[Tommymac]

31. 10 Years old. Very weird year.

For me, I was 10. A transplanted northerner, a very very precocious and shy military brat raised mostly in the south - but only a Southerner for a few years at that point.

I played, rode my bike, read a lot, and was very very confused.

My dad was a racist active duty WW2 Era Marine NCO recently returned from 13 in The Nam...nuff said there.

MLK? Don't even mention that name in our house...

Bobby? Who cares. Not at all like his Heroic War Hero Brother John. What a peace loving weak spined...nuff said there.

But in the back yard alone in my head...I LIKED Bobby. I LIKED MLK. I HATED George Wallace. I HATED Nixon.

I cried alone a lot that year.

[electric_blue68]

55. woah... what a discordant situation for you to go through :(

[BobTheSubgenius]

32. "No Nixon, no Watergate..." No to all kinds of things.

But some people got exactly what they wanted.

[Marthe48]

33. Sure stopped the swing left

Losing the Kenedys.

Yes, they were rich, but they had great ideas to lift people.

[NBachers]

34. And the echoes are still assaulting us today, stabbing us in the heart over and over and over again.

[wnylib]

35. I was 18. I had not stayed up late

or listened to the news in the morning. Did not know what had happened until I got to work where everyone was totally stunned, including me when they told me about it. I remember feeling horrified by the amount of violence that was part of my teen years - the anti war protests, the Civil Rights movement with dog and hose attacks on people, the JFK assassination, the MLK assassination only months before, then RFK. It felt like the world was coming apart and crumbling under my feet.

[jalan48]

38. I met him in 1967 when I was a high school student. His personal charisma was off the charts.

His stand against the Vietnam War gave young people hope the tide was changing in US politics. Part of the country's soul died when he was killed IMHO.

[DFW]

42. I remember that so clearly

Bobby and my dad were friends. I sill have that photo, inscribed in Bobby's small scrawl, "To (DFW'S father), with high regard, Robert Kennedy.) " They were of an age, and did indeed hold each other in high regard. Frank Mankiewicz was trying, pretty much in vain, to keep it together while talking to my dad on the phone that morning. The news came through to DC, where we were, at around daybreak due to the time difference, so we hadn't left for school yet. More than a few of us at school that day already sensed that the nation had just taken a major turn for the worse--a premonition that was to be confirmed that November.

[electric_blue68]

58. wow .. I used to listen to a radio show in NYC who's host...

Last edited Sun Jun 6, 2021, 02:17 AM - Edit history (1)

had much of JFK's, and Bobby's advisor's, staff etc. on his show from sometime in '67 onward.

Your dad probably knew all the names.

[DFW]

67. I'm sure he did.

At the time, I probably did, too. My dad was in Bobby‘s Senate office several times a week. I had a serious crush on one of the receptionists, whose name was Brandi. She destroyed me one day by telling me she was getting married. I pleaded with her to let me complete puberty before making a final decision. She laughed at the joke, but I‘m not sure I was joking. There was always such a positive vibe coming out of that office.

[electric_blue68]

70. oh, no fun at finding that out (re: Brandi)...

RFK ran for NYS Senator in '64 when I was 11. I was some what precocious in science (but not math) and a little bit in politics so I remember some adults calling him a carpet bagger stuff like that. I was also in the giddy thrall of Beatlemania so that was a lot of my life beyond just starting 6th grade. By sometime in '67 I became against the Vietnam War.

A year or so later my dad had me join him putting local election flyers under the doors of our neighbors apts. I did campaign work at Humphrey's Manhattan HQ. The next year Mayor Lindsey's reeclection. I was sad to find out that Lindsey's Manhattan Election HQ was Bobby's the year before . So my years of electorial, and single issue semi-activism began.

[jimlup]

43. Oddly my memory as a 10 year old places this in late winter ...

I lived in South Carolina and was 10 years old. I remember my neighbor came over before school, I think (on June 5th I guess) and told us Senator Kennedy had been shot. I definitely don't think of it as occurring right as the school year was ending but it must have been. In my mind, I associate it with walking out to ice on a nearby pond but that is essentially impossible for SC in June.

Funny how memory gets fuzzy and jumbled as the years pass.

[Hekate]

44. My friends & I worked so hard that year, ages 20-21. It was my big intro to politics...

A friend who was going to Long Beach State College came back to and told us about Senator Eugene McCarthy being the first to run on an antiwar platform, and away we went.

Another friend who had some kind of connection to Bobby Kennedy (I never figured out what) went to work on his campaign; but McCarthy got there first, so my friends and I were loyal, yay us.

The night of the primary election we hung out in our headquarters on the town’s main street, watching the returns on TV. Some older guy tried to kick in the door, but it was locked. We watched, until it was clear that we lost. I went home to my little apartment, where all I had was a transistor radio, the battery of which of course gave out, so I went to bed.

The following morning I went downstairs to see the old couple whose house it was; they were glued to the tv in shock, still in their nightclothes. In a montage of the commentary, we watched Mankiewicz age about a century overnight. I could weep now for that memory.

And that was it. I knew it was all over for those of us trying to elect an antiwar candidate.

1968 was a terrible year for assassinations — how could it get even worse? Yet it did. We got to see the Chicago Dem Convention’s police riots unfold, and my friend from Long Beach State had friends who were there in person — one of whom was in his political party office minding his own business when the cops stormed in and threw him against the metal filing cabinets.

I could hardly wait to leave California, and had already been accepted to the university back where I came from in 1965. At LAX as I headed for my plane back to Hawai’i, I saw passengers from Chicago coming back, wearing black armbands.

How could it get worse? Well, we got Richard Nixon, didn’t we?

As for Hubert Humphrey, poor guy. I had to grow up some more to gain perspective on him — he had an exemplary record as a progressive from Minnesota, before agreeing to run with LBJ. And over many decades, LBJ himself was considerably re-evaluated, coming up as one of our great presidents on social justice policy — if only it had not been for the Vietnam War.

RIP, Bobby. You gave your all.
RIP to our other liberal Democratic politicians of that time, who each in their own way gave their all, even if not brought down by an assassin’s bullets.

RIP to our youth.

[electric_blue68]

60. I finally decided to campaign for Humphrey...

after being so mad at him about Viet Nam, and I guess because he wasn't Bobby. I was 15.

Years later I also found out about HHH's progressive stances.
LBJ's Great Society... when they started cutting so many many programs in the Nixon years. Those things don't work overnight.

Oh, and your poor friend who was assaulted by the Chicago cops!
.
My family was on vacation, and we'd come back from dinner and watch it in our motel room's TV!

I was furious though that the night they had the tribute to RFK we went out to dinner instead. I saw it years later in some documentary.

[Ferryboat]

45. In retrospect 1968 was when our country really took a turn for the worst

[RussellCattle]

46. I can't tell you how many times in the last fifty years that I've thought about....

.....what a different country we may have become if he had gone on to win the election. The profound difference that one man with a gun can do, in this case, is just incredible.

[electric_blue68]

72. You're far from alone with those "what if's"

(and the former guy's four years made the contrast soooo much worse! )

[electric_blue68]

47. Dear Life - I soooo hear you lasllib!

There have only been a couple of years out of these 53 when June arrives that I didn't remember what was coming up, and 6/5 I didn't blink an eye till later in the day, or the next.

In fact I joined DU on 6/6 last year because 1) the sub forum I was on in politics on a liberal music groups site wasn't lively enough at that point, with the election x months away, and 2) the former guy in office was such an afront to RFK's memory that I had to find another liberal political site to work off steam, learn stuff, keep up with news etc and remembered seeing DU back near the start at an Internet Cafe. 👍

Anyway...
I was asleep in NYC and I woke up a little after 4AM with the strangest stomach ache I'd ever had. I'd long out grown the nervous stomach ache I might get on occasion when waaay younger going to school. I turned on my dad's little transistor radio, and heard the news.

I really didn't go back to sleep, blurrily made my way through my HS day. I overheard one person say they were happy. It took a lot out of me not to slap them. A subdued day at a rather usually boisterous HS as we said in low voices to each other that we hoped he'd make it. 😔

I listened to a particular radio show who's host had had many of JFK, and then Bobby's people on his show that I'd been listening to since some time in '67. Much of the staff, and advisors, etc that you read their names in history books now would talk away. Finally went to sleep.

Woke up again around 4am with that same stomach ache in time to hear Frank Mackowitz read his statement.

A friend and I stood on line for ?5 hours to view the casket at St Patrick's Cathedral. Then the next day my mom made my dad go with me (because she thought I looked terrible) to see the procession going to Penn Station for the train.

I had to study for year end exaims as I watched the train travel to DC. I slid between being so annoyed that I had to study so couldn't always pay full attention, and being in surreal sorrow.

Do you remember the crowd singing 🎶 The Battle Hymn of The Republic? 😔

My folks in 1964 when we visited our cousins right outside of DC (I was 11) we went to visit JFK's grave with the internal flame, and iconic white picket fence. It only dawned on me last year the sadness they must have felt, that they'd go to honor him.

Decades later on a Perfect DC Summer Day - low's '80s, low humidity, crystal clear deep blue sky I visited both JFK's final grave with a circular area with the quotes, and everything. As I turned I saw the simple white cross on the green for RFK further down the slope. Of course I was going to visit that, too. Facing the cross they had a space, and two quotes from him.

It still hurts all these decades later. The paths our country could have taken then, if....

[colsohlibgal]

57. Those Murders Still Hurt

Two Kennedys One MLK. That changed so much in so many ways, and not in a good way.

How different our recent history would be minus those heinous murders.

[electric_blue68]

63. Yes, they do....

like a river being suddely diverted by three major natural disasters in arelatively short period of time.

This was our USA's political river!

[Evolve Dammit]

62. The hatred was always there of anything good. The losses definately affected our ability to grow. nt

[electric_blue68]

64. "A Raging Spirit" RFK. An incredible book...

Yeah, I know it's by Chris Matthews, and it's still incredible. If you don't want to give him $ , then get it out of your library by e-book, or in person.

Besides detailing all the ups and downs, ins and outs finding out that...
RFK was empathic at a young age but hid it away because of his father who hated that kind of compassion.

That was amazing.

I can remember my mom (because she as a liberal/progressive probably watched or heard about The McCarthy Hearings [HUAC] ) saying to me as Bobby started campaigning, and what he was saying said to me "he's really changed".

[turbinetree]

65. I was living in Southern California on military base .... and still remember that very sad day...

[czarjak]

68. Once LBJ granted civil rights, it was ALL over long term...

"All men are created equal", "Liberty and justice for all"? That'll be the day.

[mnhtnbb]

69. I worked with an RN for several years

in the mid '70's who had been working the ER the night Bobby was brought in to Good Samaritan Hospital. She said it was one of the worst nights of her career.

[electric_blue68]

73. oh, my goodness! Woah

[GReedDiamond]

71. Here is my RFK button...

Oh, what could have been...such a sad and tragic (for everyone) anniversary.

[electric_blue68]

74. Oh, wow! I have a modest collection of political buttons ...

that I collected on my own from campaigns. I'm an artist, and former professional graphic designer so I always tried to get the best buttons.

I never got any RFK one's but I would have - had June 5th never happened and he got to NYS/C's primary!


My uncle gave me a very small Kennedy-Johnson button some years later.

[GReedDiamond]

75. I was 13 in 68...

...I found the RFK button at the Pasadena City College flea market several years ago.

I have an FDR button, too, from the same place.

Plus I have a lot of YIPPIE! / Smoke-In / Rock Against Racism/Reagan buttons.

Which I was associated with when I got them.

Haven''t seen them at the flea market so far.

[monkeyman1]

76. I was in v.n. playing in the jungles when this happened !!

[twodogsbarking]

79. I too remember. Your comments are moving.

Thank you all so much.

[nebby70]

80. ... like so many others have commented ...

... those of us who lived thru the 60s as 'coming of age' adults, this date invokes clear, sharp memories ...
... I was at my H.S. senior picnic, sitting in the grass listening to a transistor radio; giggling & commiserating ....
... my bf & a couple other guys were drafted for 'Nam, a couple of the girls were talking of their upcoming marriage ...
... a few of us were off to college and a few of us we talking about their soon-to-start jobs ...
... we'd been pals since 1st grade and lived, discussed, debate and cried together thru all the horrors of the 60s ...
... when the news broke; the group's silence made the crickets nearly deafening ....
... to this day, I swear, even the lightening bugs stopped flashing for a bit ...
... the 60s made us tough, sadly tough ...
... it was wonderful to read other 'my-agers' memories ...
... RFK managed to inspire so many of us; and with so much in our tender young lives then, it was another trauma ...
... so much potential was squandered ...