Robert Francis Kennedy

Kennedy, Robert Francis (1925–68), U.S. attorney general (1961–64) and U.S. senator from New York (1965–68). He was chief counsel to the Senate subcommittee investigating labor union racketeering in the late 1950s, and elder brother John's senatorial campaign manager in 1962. As attorney general in President John F. Kennedy's cabinet, Robert Kennedy supervised enforcement of civil rights legislation in the South. After his brother's death he led the liberal wing of the Democratic party. In a controversial move after Eugene McCarthy's strong showing in the New Hampshire primary of 1968, Kennedy entered the race for his party's presidential nomination. On the evening of his victory in the California primary, June 5, 1968, he was shot and killed in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan.