Surrounded by crystal chandeliers and Grecian columns, a crowd of approximately 30 Boston University community members gathered in the Metcalf Trustee Center to listen to author and former BU journalism professor Larry Tye’s lecture, “Revisiting Bobby Kennedy’s Legacy.”
The lecture, organized by the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, is part of Tye’s tour to promote his recent book, “Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon.”
Pedro Falci, the assistant director of the HTC, said before the lecture that reached out to Tye both because of the continuing legacy of Robert Kennedy in American politics and because of Kennedy’s embodiment of “common ground.”
“[Bobby Kennedy] represents a standard that we can aspire other politicians to live up to,” Falci said. “When we chastise and criticize politicians for changing their minds and call them ‘flip-floppers,’ it’s OK and actually rather commendable when politicians admit their mistakes and grow, and Bobby did that.”
Journalism professor Lou Ureneck introduced Tye before the lecture, which carried audience members through three pivotal moments in Kennedy’s life: Senator Joe McCarthy’s funeral and the assassinations of both President John Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
The assassination of President Kennedy invoked strong memories among the older generation, Tye said.
“It was, to our generation, our 9/11 moment,” he said. “The country was devastated. For that month, it was Bobby who held everybody together.”
In one of the most powerful moments of the night, Tye quoted Kennedy’s speech to the black community on the night of King’s assassination — “For those of you who are black, and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act against all white people, I can also say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, and he was killed by a white man.”
“Bobby Kennedy went into the black community to embrace that community for the loss of Martin Luther King, and instead, they turned the tables on him, and they embraced him for the loss five years before of his brother,” Tye said.
After the lecture, the audience had the opportunity to ask Tye questions. When an audience member asked about Kennedy’s role in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Tye suggested, for the first time that night, that Kennedy’s legacy was by no means perfect.
“I started off writing this book with him as my ultimate hero, and then I saw the lies that he told and the bad things that he did, and by the end of the book, he became more of a hero to me than ever — because he had learned from the things that he did wrong,” Tye said.
After the lecture, several attendees said they were moved by Kennedy’s life and Tye’s passion on the subject.
Colin Diver, a lecturer in the BU School of Law, said he lived through much of the Kennedy family’s history and Tye’s lecture resurfaced many memories from that time.
“Understanding how people like [Bobby] Kennedy grow and change and are authentic in their changing is really important,” Diver said. “It’s an important lesson for all of us.”
Aaraf Afzal, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Communication, came with a group of students involved in BU Culture Shock, the Howard Thurman Center’s annual magazine.
“[Tye] sounded really passionate about what he loved, and I came away learning something,” Afzal said. “Some of the things about the [political] divide sort of resonated with me.”
Xinci Tao, a first-year graduate student in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, said Bobby Kennedy was her favorite member of the Kennedy family after watching a television mini-series about their legacy.
“I have a better understanding of what RFK represents to the American people [now], because I’m not from here,” Tao said. “I feel like it was quite illuminating.”
