Robert Kennedy: The Last Campaign
Text and photographs chronicle Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign and provide a unique record of the night of Kennedy's assassination
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In March 1968, against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, a painfully divided country, and the weighty legacy of his brother John, Robert F. Kennedy set his sights on the presidency. Risking his political future at the age of forty-two by challenging Lyndon Johnson, Senator Kennedy declared his candidacy and began the difficult task of winning over the American public. He spoke clearly and passionately about the desperate need for racial justice, and about the indecency of war, galvanizing support for the growing antiwar movement. His favorite quote was a paraphrase of George Bernard Shaw: "Some men see things as they are and say, why? I dream things that never were and ask, why not?"Bill Eppridge was the staff photographer for Life magazine assigned to follow RFK as he traveled around the states in '68 (and in '66, as Kennedy campaigned for local Democratic candidates); Hays Gorey was the correspondent Time magazine asked to cover the last campaign. Eppridge captured on film the remarkable outpouring of commitment and hope around the country, from the forest of out-stretched hands at every tour stop to the joyous celebrations after the initial primary victories in '68. But here, too, are foreboding glimpses of the opposition and a jolting and unique record of Robert Kennedy's journey through the kitchen of L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel on June 4, 1968 - the night of his assassination. The mourning crowds that greet the funeral train carrying RFK through the countryside for the last time are a moving counterpoint to the almost magical promise of the campaign. They mark a dramatic end to the optimism of the decade.On the 25th anniversary of RFK's death, Bill Eppridge felt it was time to offer the public his long dormant collection of photographs. Both he and Hays Gorey had lived inside Kennedy's campaign and both were at the Ambassador Hotel the night June 4. Gorey's text lends a narrative to the events pictured and provides both an immediate sense of the '60s and an understanding of how Robert Kennedy's run for the presidency really was the last campaign of its kind.
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