RFK: Attorney General / Senator / Presidential Candidate
"What is the price tag on equal justice under law?”—U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, 1964
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.”—U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, 1966
“My thanks to all of you, and now it's on to Chicago and let's win there."—Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy’s California primary victory speech, just after midnight, June 5, 1968
Author’s Note
“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events.”—Robert F. Kennedy, 1966
June 4, 1968: The Last Fall was originally intended as a time-travel journey to “fix” an actual or fictitious moment from the Vietnam War in 1968. As the plot evolved, I was instead drawn to “what if” scenarios centered around Robert F. Kennedy. If the Senator survived his assault, perhaps a messy military chapter in U.S. and world history would’ve ended sooner.
In trying times, both abroad and at home, RFK inspired many with his optimism. In 1961, he offered: “If our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.” I’d like to think this expression of hope resonated with people like Woody Guthrie, who wrote songs about those ignored or shut out of the American Dream. In 1944, he recorded “This Land is Your Land” with earnest words: “As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting. This land was made for you and me.”
In the 1960s, five prominent leaders were assassinated—individuals who influenced public discourse in profoundly different ways: NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers, June 1963; President John F. Kennedy, November 1963; Minister Malcolm X, February 1965; Reverend Martin Luther King, April 1968; and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, June 1968.
RFK was the last of these people to fall. His mission to do good and be better as a nation and world lives on as a beacon of faith for us all.
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