RFK and MLK

Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., lived parallel lives. Their leadership helped millions of Americans recover from the assassination of John F. Kennedy and inspired hope for a more peaceful and egalitarian society (which endured well after their own tragic deaths five years later). Their rhetoric addressed the pervasive issues of the era—poverty, war and civil rights—and encouraged young people and the disadvantaged throughout the United States and the world. This book examines the vision they shared through their speeches, writings and public appearances in the years of the cultural groundshift of 1963 through 1968.

Philip A. Goduti, Jr., is an adjunct assistant professor of history at Quinnipiac University and teaches U.S. history at Somers High School in Connecticut where he is the 2017 Somers Public Schools Teacher of the Year. He has also worked as a freelance reporter for the Hamden Chronicle and the Providence Journal Bulletin. He lives in Cromwell, Connecticut.

Philip A. Goduti, Jr.

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 316
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2017
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7672-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2872-1
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1
Introduction 4
Prologue—“Jack’s Been Shot” 11

Part I. America in the Wake of Tragedy, 1963
1: November 22, 1963 23
2: “Let Us Continue” 38

Part II. Forging a New American Identity, 1964
3: Finding a Voice 49
4: “The Hearts and Minds of Youth” 65
5: “The Clock of Destiny Is Ticking Out” 78
6: Freedom and the World 100
7: New Awakenings 122

Part III. Marching On and Hitting Full Stride, 1965–1966
8: Selma 135
9: Bloody Sunday and the Aftermath 146
10: “The Crises of the Moment” 167
11: Urban Crisis, Voting Rights and Watts 183
12: “Ripples of Hope” 200

Part IV. Visions of America, 1967–1968
13: “A Coalition of Conscience” 221
14: “Beyond Vietnam” 239
15: “A Newer World” 255
16: 1968 269

Epilogue—Selma, 2015 281
Chapter Notes 285
Bibliography 299
Index 301

“This volume examines the writings, speeches, and actions of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. to consider how their words impacted American society and change the US after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, up to 1968”—ProtoView.