The Justice Department on Jan. 21 will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the swearing in of Robert F. Kennedy as Attorney General. The event will take place at Justice Department headquarters, officially named the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building and nicknamed Main Justice.
Former and current DOJ employees are expected to attend, along with Kennedy’s widow, Ethel Kennedy, other members of the Kennedy family, civil rights leaders and historians.
The event will include remarks from Attorney General Eric Holder and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Kennedy’s daughter and the former lieutenant governor of Maryland. A video retrospective also will be shown.
In addition, Jack Rosenthal, a chief press officer at DOJ under Kennedy, will moderate a panel discussion featuring John Seigenthaler, administrative assistant to Kennedy; John Doar, the First Assistant of the Civil Rights Division under Kennedy; journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who was the first African American to graduate from the University of Georgia, and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who was a leader in the civil rights movement before winning election to Congress.
The event will conclude with a special video message from former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, who served as Deputy Attorney General under Kennedy.
