Thanks, Bobby Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy died 50 years ago, struck down by an assassin like his brother and Martin Luther King before him. We do not what would have happened had RFK lived. Counterfactual histories are tempting to write, typically far too flattering to their protagonists. We do know that New York’s junior senator took on noble causes that few politicians truly cared about — then or now — and we are sorely lacking men and women of such vision.
Despite being born to privilege and political pedigree, and being a central part of America’s de facto royal family, he fought for the powerless and against the political bosses.
Having lost his brother to a gunman, Kennedy was one of the first to call for restrictions on firearms by banning mail-order gun sales. “For too long we dealt with these deadly weapons as if they were harmless toys. Yet their very presence, the ease of their acquisition and the familiarity of their appearance have led to thousands of deaths each year,” he said. The bill only passed after he and King were dead.
When touring rundown Brooklyn buildings in 1966, Judge Thomas Jones challenged RFK that there had been enough studies on poverty: “I’m weary of study, senator, very weary. The Negro people are angry, senator, and judge that I am, I’m angry too.” Kennedy acted, founding the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corp., the first of its kind in America. It has built or rehabbed thousands of housing units, created tens of thousands of jobs and served as a national model.
That same year, disgusted with clubhouse control of the surrogate court that handle the estates of the dead — and graverobbing that benefited connected insiders — RFK attacked the Manhattan Democratic machine, backing reformer Sam Silverman for surrogate judge. They beat the bosses in a contested primary.
But as petitioning begins this week, it looks like the Brooklyn machine will win the surrogate post by default. Only one candidate is running — their candidate. Even worse, disgraced ex-boss and felon Clarence Norman is along for the ride.
Finally, RFK tirelessly fought for farmworkers across the country and state. It’s a struggle that shamefully continues a half century later, as they get political promises galore but no change.
Robert Kennedy has a New York City bridge named after him; most of us still call it the Triborough. We’d far rather have equal labor rights for farmworkers, smart gun laws in Washington and good government in our corrupt state.