Forty years ago, the United States was engaged in an unpopular war half-way around the world, Richard Nixon was well on his way to claiming the Republican nomination and the Democrats were locked in a struggle to determine whether to continue the policies of the sitting Democratic president or to choose a candidate who opposed the war and other key administration policies.
The year was 1968, and the candidate who was trying to convince the nation that a new way of conducting its business was in order was Robert F. Kennedy.
On May 27, some of the people who carried that campaign forward and the people who were influenced by that historic endeavor will come together at the Freedom Forum in Washington, D.C., to look at what made the campaign so different and what lessons are to be learned from Kennedy’s brief but transformative run for the White House.
"To Seek a Newer World: The Life and Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy" will bring together in two panel discussions some of Kennedy’s most influential associates from his three-month-long presidential campaign, journalists who chronicled the year’s events and others who were just beginning their careers in public service.
Kennedy’s eldest daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, will welcome guests and panelists, who include former Kennedy associates Frank Mankiewicz, Peter Edelman, John Seigenthaler, John Nolan, John Doar, William vanden Heuvel and James Tolan as well as authors Jules Witcover and Thurston Clarke. Other panelists are Chuck McDew, one of the founders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee; former assistant to President Clinton, Jill Schuker, who began her career in public policy as a college intern in Kennedy’s Washington, D.C., Senate office and as a volunteer in his 1968 campaign; and former NAACP Legal Defense Fund Director-Counsel Elaine Jones. Television news anchor John Seigenthaler will moderate the discussions.
Anyone interested in attending should call the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial at 202-463-7575, extension 227.
Sponsored by the Freedom Forum, Vanderbilt University and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, the program will culminate in the annual Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards. "To Seek a Newer World" was conceptualized by Mark Dalhouse, director of Vanderbilt’s Office of Active Citizenship and Service and lecturer in the Department of History, in an effort to revisit the events that marked Kennedy’s campaign in a historic year that saw both the New York senator and Dr. Martin Luther King assassinated and a sitting president, Lyndon Johnson, resign in mid-campaign.
At the outset Dalhouse thought it would be helpful to revisit the campaign for his students in the class he teaches in Washington in May, but after consulting with John Seigenthaler, who worked in Kennedy’s campaign, and with officials at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial and the Freedom Forum, he became aware that there was an opportunity to present the program to a wider audience in the nation’s capital.
"The life and service of Robert F. Kennedy continues to resonate with something deep in our national life," Dalhouse said. "Our purpose for this symposium is to understand, interpret and use that resonance to inspire a new generation of students to enter public service.
"I am thankful to Charles Overby, chairman, chief executive office and president of the Freedom Forum; John and the RFK Memorial for joining with Vanderbilt to co-host the symposium."
Media Contact: Elizabeth Latt, (615) 322-NEWS
Elizabeth.p.latt@vanderbilt.edu