"We know that it is law which enables men to live together, that creates order out of chaos. We know that law is the glue that holds civilization together. And we know that if one man's rights are denied, the rights of all others are endangered"— Robert F. Kennedy, 1961

About the Exhibit

President Kennedy's appointment of his 35-year-old brother Robert Francis Kennedy as the attorney general of the United States was controversial. According to many, Robert Kennedy, the youngest attorney general since 1814, lacked experience in practicing law. But he silenced the critics by assembling a skilled and dedicated staff, and by promoting innovative and aggressive programs to enforce civil rights, combat organized crime, improve legal access for the poor, and develop new approaches to juvenile delinquency. A display of film footage and personal items of Robert F. Kennedy provide a glimpse into the Attorney General's office. The centerpiece of the exhibit are documents and personal items of Robert Kennedy's placed atop a desk as they would have been on a September day in 1962. Among the items are the his glasses, pens and pencils, his original telephone, bookends, and drawings taped on the wall from his young children.

Robert Kennedy’s influence in the administration extended well beyond law enforcement. Though different in temperament and outlook, the President came to rely heavily on his brother’s judgment and effectiveness as political adviser, foreign affairs counselor, and most trusted confidant. After the Bay of Pigs debacle, Robert Kennedy became an intimate adviser in intelligence matters and major international negotiations. His efforts during the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 were crucial in shaping a peaceful outcome.

Under Kennedy's leadership, the Justice Department litigated 57 voting rights cases, opening southern polling booths to thousands of black voters, and assisted in ending segregation in interstate transportation and in integrating over 1,100 school districts. In 1963, RFK championed before Congress new civil rights legislation to guarantee access for all citizens to public accommodations, to accelerate desegregation of public schools, and to halt discrimination in all federally funded programs.

Fighting Organized Crime

"To meet the challenge of our times, so that we can later look back upon this era not as one of which we need be ashamed but as a turning point on the way to a better America, we must first defeat the enemy within."—Robert F. Kennedy

Robert Kennedy brought to the Justice Department a reputation as a relentless fighter against crime and corruption. As Chief Counsel for the U.S. Senate’s “Rackets” Committee he had direct experience of the influence of organized crime on America’s economy and government. Upon entering office he was determined to change the department’s previous neglect of these issues and assigned a high priority to an aggressive campaign against mobsters.

Through speeches and writing, such as his book The Enemy Within, he alerted the country to the existence of a “private government of organized crime with an annual income of billions, resting on a base of human suffering and moral corrosion.” He established the first coordinated program involving all twenty-six federal law enforcement agencies to investigate organized crime, overcoming FBI indifference to the pursuit of racketeers. Robert Kennedy's anti-racketeering legislation, passed in 1961 and 1963, and the emphasis he placed on the investigation and prosecution of organized crime, led to dramatic increases in convictions.

Exhibit Highlights