KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
The summer of 1968 was a time of great optimism.
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Senator Robert F. Kennedy had just won the California presidential primary and was ready to make changes.
Just five years earlier, Kennedy’s brother, John, was assassinated, and two months earlier, the nation witnessed the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The year 1968 was already a turbulent time in American history that had people on edge with the Vietnam War and social movements, capped by angry demonstrations and political violence.
Because of the turmoil, President Lyndon B. Johnson did not seek a second term, leading Robert Kennedy to run for president and receive a tremendous amount of support.
Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at [email protected].Kennedy was seen by many to be the only person capable of uniting the people.
His attention to minority communities and civil rights made him a champion of racial and political liberalism, until tragedy struck.
On June 5, 1968, Kennedy was shot several times inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
The 24-year-old Palestinian assassin Sirhan Sirhan shot Kennedy from only a foot away after hiding his .22 revolver with a rolled up campaign poster.
Robert F. Kennedy died a day later at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles.
“It was a shame it happened at all, let alone here in Los Angeles,”said Councilmember Bob Kellar. “It was devastating to lose someone so close to home.”
Sirhan confessed to the crime at his trial and received a death sentence on March 3, 1969.
He was soon sentenced to life in prison after the California State Supreme Court invalidated all death penalty sentences in 1972.
“We were all in a stake of shock when it happened.” said Kellar “I joined the LAPD a few months before it happened.”
It is said that Kennedy’s reliance on young and multiracial volunteers and supporters anticipated the election of the nation’s first black president, Barack Obama.
“Robert Kennedy was a champion for civil rights whose life was tragically cut short on June 5, 1968,” said Congressman Steve Knight. “While I was too young at the time to have any personal memories of the event, the legacy of leadership from the entire Kennedy family continues to this day. I have the pleasure of serving in the House of Representatives with Robert’s grandson, Joe Kennedy III.”
He was known for his common touch, never talking down to people and believing that nobody wasn’t worth talking to.
“Kennedy had an easygoing, open-door policy,” said Harry Benson, an 88-year-old photographer who was at the scene of the assassination. “If he was staying at a suite, you were welcome to come in and visit – a rare thing for a famous politician.”
Kennedy was buried near his older brother, John, at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, the first burial there to have ever taken place at night.
“I think Bobby would have been a great president,” Benson said. “Even Nixon said to me that he would probably have beaten him.”
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