Royal Generation

They were America's version of a royal family; equal parts spectacle and service, scandal and sorrow. And always, always glamor. Love them or hate them, the Kennedys captured the national imagination and held it in a way no other family has. The Bush family may have put comparable numbers of family members in public office, but they will never similar assume place in American culture. And now with passing of Ted Kennedy, and prior to that his sister Eunice, the hold the Kennedys had on the American collective imagination is loosened, irrevocably converted to nostalgia.

Weekend Events

If you missed any of the memorial events this weekend and would like to catch up on them, you can see them in C-Span's video library. If you'd like to get a sense of the continuing power the Kennedy family has on historical imagination, check out the web site for American Experience's The Kennedys, which offers details about the different family members as well as assessments of their cultural significance.

The Power of Camelot

The spell of the Kennedy Camelot can be seen through the continuing fascination with JFK's assassination. The industry of documentaries, web sites, books and tourism surrounding the event, not to mention the 70% of Americans (according to a 2003 ABC news poll) who believe there to be a conspiracy surrounding the event, demonstrates our national pre-occupation. Just a few of the more comprehensive web sites include The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by John Simkin, the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records at the National Archives, and the John F. Kennedy Assassination Homepage by Ralph Schuster (caution: gruesome photographs).

But there was more to the Camelot myth. An introduction to it can be garnered from the virtual tour of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library's web site, especially the virtual tour, which includes extensive recordings of JFK speaking. You can also check the president's biography, or those of anyone else mentioned in this entry in the library's comprehensive, full-text Biography Reference Bank Select database. (Campus user ID and password required for off-campus use.) Part of the mystique certainly came from Jacqueline Kennedy, a first lady who personified glamor and who, with her husband brought youth and sparkle to the White House, even as she set fashion trends for the nation.

The New Hope

Another critical aspect of the Kennedy story is the romantic rise and tragic fall of Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign 1968 following his roles as attorney general, first for his brother and then for Lyndon Johnson, and then as Senator for New York. Robert's presidential bid drew its support from those he identified as "the disaffected", minorities, the young, the powerless. His star was rising in those turbulent times following Martin Luther King's assassination when, on the night of his success in the California primary, he was shot by Sirhan Sirhan in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel. All of the official documents regarding his assassination can be viewed online courtesy of the Mary Ferrell Foundation. The Foundation also has online archives of the JFK assassination as well as assassination attempts on Castro, Martin Luther King and others and covert government and military activities that have been declassified. A fascinating online resource.

Less well known is Robert Kennedy's early participation with Joseph McCarthy in that Senator's notorious communist hunting efforts within the federal government and his part in the sending the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro in Cuba, or even his initial efforts as Attorney General to restrict the actions of Freedom Riders in Alabama. American Experience captures the essence of Robert Kennedy's complexity in their web site for the documentary RFK, of which the library owns a copy.

Championing the Disabled

Eunice Kennedy Shriver passed away a little over two weeks ago, and although she did not share the spotlight in the same way her brothers did, her impact was equally profound for millions of people. For Eunice took up the cause of those with mental disabilities, something close to her heart because of her sister Rosemary. Eunice publicly revealed the story of her sister's lobotomy, one of Dr. Walter Freeman's earliest, and most notorious procedures. The procedure, done to "calm" Rosemary, who was regarded by the family as mentally retarded but whose actual mental condition is unclear left infantilized. (For information on Freeman's lobotomy process, see The Lobotomist web site on American Experience.) The most obvious result of Eunice's efforts was the creation of the Special Olympics, which work to change public perceptions of people with intellectual disabilities. Today more than 3 million people benefit from an organization which began as in Shriver's backyard.

Master of the Senate

More visible than his sister and more controversial than his brothers, in part because of his long and successful career despite personal tragedy and scandal, Edward Kennedy may ultimately be judged the most significant of the three brothers. His detractors will always believe he got off too easily in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a young campaign worker who drowned when Ted Kennedy's car went off an unlit, unrailed bridge at Chappaquiddick Island, MA. The history of incident can be found here, along with pictures of the locations and individuals involved. Similarly, his entanglement in the rape trial of William Kennedy Smith in 1991 fueled criticism of his behavior and undermined his ability participate actively as Clarence Thomas' supreme court nomination became a national debate on sexual harassment.

But despite his at times dubious personal behavior, Ted Kennedy became over the years one of the most successful leaders the Senate has ever seen. As recent tributes from political allies and foes, who were nevertheless personal friends, demonstrate, he learned how to get things done in Congress, and is personally associated with more than 100 pieces of major legislation. No mean feat, of which those who refer to a do-Nothing Congress should take note. That he did so was a testament to his political skill and his personal charisma, as numerous commentators have noted.

Will Camelot release its hold on the American imagination? The Washington Post offers some speculations.