November 20: Birthday of Robert F. Kennedy (1925)
Prayer Idea
Pray for people who are mourning the death of a parent.
History Note
Joseph Kennedy was a businessman and government official. He and his wife, Rose, had nine children. Robert Francis Kennedy (known as “Bobby”) was the seventh, born on November 20, 1925.
Robert Kennedy served in the U.S. Navy at the end of WWII. Part of his service was on the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., named after his elder brother, who had been killed on a mission in 1944.
Kennedy graduated from Harvard and became an attorney, who worked as counsel for committees of the U.S. Senate. He managed his brother John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign and then served as attorney general under his brother. Promoting civil rights for African Americans and fighting organized crime were two of his priorities.
After the assassination of his brother, Robert Kennedy resigned as attorney general. He won election to the U.S. Senate in 1964. He chose to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968.
Kennedy won several primary elections, including the California primary on June 4. After that election, he spoke to supporters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Shortly after his speech, a man shot and mortally wounded Kennedy. The assassin was a Palestinian man whose Christian family was displaced during the creation of Israel in 1948. He killed Kennedy to protest U.S. support of Israel.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City held the funeral service for Robert Kennedy on June 8. A train took his remains to Arlington National Cemetery for burial. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the tracks to say farewell to Bobby.
Robert F. Kennedy and his wife, Ethel, had 11 children. The youngest was born after Robert’s death. Robert F. Kennedy Jr was the third child. He was 14 when his father died. In 2017 RFK Jr. visited the man convicted of his father’s murder in prison. In 2025 RFK Jr. became secretary of Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump.
Robert F. Kennedy speaks in California at a 1968 campaign event. Image courtesy Sven Walnum, The Sven Walnum Photograph Collection/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA.
Learn More
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Robert F. Kennedy was in Indianapolis when he got the news. Kennedy spoke to a crowd that included a majority of African Americans. His eulogy of King and his call for peace made a positive impression on the audience. While other American cities erupted in violence, Indianapolis remained peaceful.
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