Remembering RFK and the lawyers' committee he inspired
Robert Kennedy. Photo by LBJ Library photo by Yoichi R. Okamoto, via Wikimedia Commons
Fifty years ago this month, one of the most significant voices of our time was silenced by an assassin’s bullet. Robert F. Kennedy’s passionate advocacy on behalf of the poor and dispossessed was born of his belief in the inherent dignity and worth of all human beings.
Initially slow to view the struggle for civil rights beyond the lens of maintaining the rule of law, he allowed himself to be touched by the suffering of others and his politics to be changed by the experience.
As his empathy deepened, his influence expanded and, through the power of words and deeds, he compelled people from disparate experiences to believe change was not only possible, but also promised. It is that very quality, which, in today’s brutish political environment, makes his loss feel more profound.
Without question, Bobby Kennedy believed equal justice under law was established on the foundation of a strong rule of law. He believed demonstrating to the world that Americans willingly observed the rule of law was essential to securing the national welfare. He was distressed by broadcasts of civil rights demonstrations where women and children were assaulted by water cannons and police dogs, and deeply offended by public officials who obstructed court orders to deny civil rights and “corrupted the law” to frustrate the administration of justice. This Bobby Kennedy initiated the chain of events that led to the establishment of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Tasked with marshaling support for the civil rights legislation announced by President John F. Kennedy in a rare prime-time address, Attorney General Kennedy orchestrated a series of large gatherings at the White House so the president could persuade influencers and opinion-makers to support the proposed legislation.
Lawyers were not an initial target for the gatherings. Lawyers were added after a call between Bobby and Bernard Segal, former chair of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Judiciary and a regular presence at the Kennedy Justice Department. The day prior to the president’s announcement, Segal and 46 other lawyers had published an open letter in an Alabama newspaper challenging Gov. George Wallace’s belief that he could defy the federal court’s order to desegregate the University of Alabama. Segal convinced Bobby Kennedy to hold a gathering for members of the bar.
Kristen Clarke. Photo courtesy of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
On June 21, 1963, 244 lawyers filled the East Room of the White House to hear the president speak about the need for civil rights legislation. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke passionately about the discrimination he had witnessed in the South and how the legislation could help to remedy it. The attorney general spoke the longest and most urgently. He argued that members of the legal profession, who swore an oath to the Constitution, were obligated to advance the rule of law and use their specialized knowledge and skills to advance civil rights for African-Americans. He decried de jure segregation in the South, but also lambasted de facto segregation in the North and called for the establishment of “lawyers’ committees” around the country to pursue the extension of civil rights. By the end of the meeting, Segal and Harrison Tweed, former president of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, volunteered to lead the new committee.
Bobby Kennedy was an avid patron of the lawyers’ committee and invested his Justice Department in its growth and development. One week after the White House meeting, he sent a letter of appreciation to the attendees, encouraging them to keep in touch with the lawyers’ committee and instructing them to contact him directly “about any significant developments or problems.” He made Assistant Attorney General Louis Oberdorfer, one of his closest allies and a staunch proponent of civil rights, the official point of contact for the burgeoning organization. Unofficially, Oberdorfer was part guiding hand, part co-conspirator in the organization’s establishment.
Two months after the White House gathering, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law held its first official meeting in Chicago during the ABA’s annual convention. Unable to attend in person, Bobby Kennedy sent the next highest-ranking Justice Department official, Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, as a sign that the organization had the administration’s full support. Two months later, in October of 1963, Bobby called the lawyers’ committee to the Justice Department for a progress check and pushed its leaders to do more “to change the climate in the South,” encouraging them to expand the organization’s focus to include litigation.
One month later, the foundation of Bobby’s life and that of the country buckled when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
Hollowed by tragedy and loss, Bobby Kennedy began his transformation from defender of the rule of law to social justice champion. He chastised lawyers for abdicating “responsibility for major social problems” and concentrating “too much on the traditional stuff of the law … and too little upon fundamental changes in our society.” He believed fundamental changes were necessary to address the despair and frustration felt by blacks in the urban ghettos of the North, whites in the rural hollows of Appalachia, and Hispanics in the agricultural fields of California.
During a Law Day speech in May 1964, he heralded the work of “the voluntary Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law” as an example of what lawyers could do to ensure that America lived up to the “political promise of civil rights.” In that same speech, he defined a “parallel need for America to live up to the economic promise of social rights, of social—and thus equal—justice under law.”
As he would in the Senate and during his fateful campaign for the presidency, Kennedy argued that poverty was not “simply a condition of want,” but also “a condition of helplessness.” Helplessness that existed not merely from the absence of rights, but also from the inability to access rights. “Unasserted, unknown, unavailable rights,” he said, are “no rights at all.”
He argued that because lawyers had stood by and allowed the “growth and continuance of two systems of law—one for the rich, one for the poor,” lawyers were responsible for setting things right.
When his term as attorney general ended, the leadership of the lawyers’ committee began to openly reflect the tremendous influence of the Kennedy Justice Department on the organization’s growth and development. From 1965 until 1973, the committee consistently had former assistant attorneys general from Kennedy Justice Department serving as its co-chairs.
Myesha Braden. Photo courtesy of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
After his assassination and death, those closest to Bobby felt a deep responsibility for continuing the work he had begun. For the last 50 years, in ways large and small, they have endeavored to embody his call for “love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country.” A feeling of justice lacking in a White House that creates a false idol of the American flag while ignoring the epidemic of police violence in communities of color. A feeling of justice absent from a Justice Department that separates children from their parents at our borders. A feeling of justice ignored by a Congress that refuses to pass reasonable gun control legislation when our children are being murdered in their classrooms.
As we memorialize his death and remember his life, we should also examine the quality of our efforts to challenge the helplessness that compelled Bobby Kennedy to action. What are we doing to stop the incarceration of the poor because of their inability to pay court-imposed fines and fees? How can we correct a system that allows people of means to secure release on money bail while the poor remain locked behind bars? How can we prevent the disenfranchisement of individuals when access to the ballot is limited by the ability to afford certain documents or travel long distances to the polling place? What can we do to ensure that the quality of education a child receives is not determined by their ZIP code? How do we secure access to employment opportunities for those with disabilities or criminal histories?
As Kennedy wished during that first meeting at the White House, the lawyers’ committee has grown to become a national organization with eight local affiliates; Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Jackson, Mississippi. As we celebrate our 55th year, we continue to heed his call for lawyers to reflect on the major social problems of the day and consider how we should apply “our precision, our understanding of technicalities, our adversary skills, our negotiating skills, our understanding of procedural maneuvers” to address and resolve them. In doing so, we carry forward his legacy of working to ensure “equal justice for all.”
Kristen Clarke is president and executive of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Myesha Braden is director for its criminal justice project.
The ABAJournal.com is accepting queries for original, thoughtful, nonpromotional articles and commentary by unpaid contributors to run in the Your Voice section of our ABAJournal.com. Details of the new policy are posted at “Your Submissions, Your Voice.”
Updated on Jan. 6, 2021 to correct a misspelled caption.
Your Voice submissions
The ABA Journal wants to host and facilitate conversations among lawyers about their profession. We are now accepting thoughtful, non-promotional articles and commentary by unpaid contributors.
