NPR

The Education Of Bobby Kennedy — On Race

"Robert Kennedy was in search of love and found it in black America, and it was reciprocated," says historian David Margolick, reflecting on RFK's legacy 50 years after his death.
Robert F. Kennedy stands in an open-top convertible and shakes hands with members of a crowd as he campaigns for the democratic Presidential nomination in Detroit, May 15, 1968. (Photo by Andrew Sacks/Getty Images)

Back in May, 1963, then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy invited a select group of black entertainers to meet with him at his father's apartment in New York City.

Singer-actor Harry Belafonte was there. So was Lorraine Hansberry, whose play about black upward mobility, , had received rapturous reviews when it debuted two years earlier. Writer James Baldwin came, as did singer Lena Horne. Each of the invitees was active in civil rights, and Bobby Kennedy was interested in hearing more about the movement.

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