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Photos courtesy of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights; Robert Knudsen, White House/John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston; Abbie Rowe, National Park Service/John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston; and Cecil Stoughton, White House/John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston.
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(L to R) Moderator Jack Rosenthal, Panelists Rep. John Lewis, John Seigenthaler, Charlayne Hunter-Gault and John Doar
The common theme throughout the panel discussion on Friday commemorating the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Robert F. Kennedy’s time as attorney general was his dedication to ensuring civil rights.
The group shared their memories of Kennedy with a huge audience, including members of the Kennedy family, at the Great Hall in the Department of Justice. A portrait of a youthful Kennedy wearing a gray jacket with his hands jammed in his khakis and his red leather high-backed chair stood prominently on stage reminding guests of his lasting imprint at DOJ — and making it hard to believe that he would be 85 years old if he were still alive.
The four panelists included a veteran civil rights activist, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.); an administrative assistant to Attorney General Kennedy and journalist, John Seigenthaler; the first African-American woman to enter the University of Georgia and journalist, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, and the First Assistant and then the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division from 1960 to 1967, John Doar. The moderator was Jack Rosenthal, a public affairs officer and special assistant to Kennedy and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The New York Times.
Elected to the House of Representatives in 1986, Lewis recalled his tumultuous experience as a freedom rider in the 1960s. The activists planned to travel from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans. But they were stalled in Montgomery, Ala. and subjected to beatings and violence. Kennedy intervened and threatened federal intervention if a Greyhound bus driver did not drive the group so their journey could go on.
“It was the first real test in the area of civil rights,” Lewis said. “Robert Kennedy used his power, used his ability to save lives that evening in Montgomery.” Lewis knew well the dangers faced by civil rights activists: he was clubbed on the head by Alabama state troopers in1965.
Seigenthaler called that era an exciting time to be able “to listen to the work of justice unfold by these giants of justice.”
Hunter-Gault witnessed Kennedy’s first major speech as Attorney General. She freely admitted her anxieties and uneasiness anticipating his speech, for she was still smarting from her peers’ racist taunts protesting her admittance to the University of Georgia.
Her fears started to ease once she heard Kennedy speak to the universality of equal rights. “I suddenly heard Kennedy say in the worldwide struggle, the graduation of Charlayne Hunter in Hamilton homes will without a question aid and assist the fight against communism, political infiltration and the global warfare. And I said my graduation is going to do what?”
Doar, who was one of the central figures at DOJ, dedicating himself to getting rid of Jim Crow laws and helping draft the Voting Rights Act of 1965, emphasized Kennedy’s involvement with civil rights advancements.
He recalled Kennedy’s drive, his ability to get attorneys to work with him, his generosity and sense of humor. Kennedy would say, “‘You’ve got to do more; what are you going to do about Mississippi?’ That’s not good enough,’” Doar said.
The day had a decidedly celebratory tone, with the current attorney general, Eric Holder, the first black man to hold the post, and Kennedy’s eldest daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, offering remarks and Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, joining them on stage. But it was marked with solemn reverence for the man to whom the day was dedicated.
Both Doar and Lewis easily associated Kennedy’s legacy with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. “Without 1965, there would be no [President] Barack Obama as president of the United States of America,” Lewis said.
There was an aura of Camelot in the Great Hall at Justice Department headquarters on Friday as relatives of Robert F. Kennedy and members of the DOJ community honored the 50th anniversary of the late Attorney General’s swearing-in.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend addresses the crowd as Eric Holder and Ethel Kennedy look on. (photo by Andrew Ramonas / Main Justice)
Ethel Kennedy, Robert’s widow, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, his eldest child, led a contingent of dozens of family members who came to the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building to pay tribute. Other Kennedys in attendance included Vicki Kennedy, the widow of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy.
Scores of past and present DOJ officials and staff members joined the Kennedys, lining the balcony of the Great Hall and packing the room, which was lined with photos of Robert Kennedy and accented with red, white and blue lights. About a dozen colleagues from his time as Attorney General and former Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti of the Jimmy Carter administration were there.
Townsend called on the DOJ to continue her father’s mission to fight injustice in the world and help the less fortunate.
“He was a great Attorney General because he saw injustice to others had been invisible, and he called on his team at the Department and then at the nation in large to see it and address it,” said Townsend. “All of you … are involved in important and critical questions in this day at this time. As you make your climb up that hill towards a just, peaceful and equitable America, thank you for remembering my father’s crusade.”
At first, Robert Kennedy was not a popular choice to head the DOJ, as Nicholas Katzenbach, Deputy Attorney General from 1962 to 1965 and Attorney General from 1965 to 1966, acknowledged in a film tribute. Only 35 years old in January 1961, Kennedy was viewed as having one outstanding qualification: he was the president’s brother. But he brought to his office an unquenchable desire to advance the cause of civil rights, and he helped persuade President Kennedy to declare civil rights “a moral issue” in what is now seen as a landmark speech in June 1963.
Townsend also urged DOJ officials to “do a better job on gun regulation and on gun control and making our citizens safe,” citing the Tucson, Ariz., shooting spree this month that severely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and killed six. Kennedy’s daughter worked in the DOJ Office of Justice Programs under former Attorney General Janet Reno on the 1994 federal assault-weapons ban, which prohibited the manufacturing of certain semi-automatic guns for civilian use. The ban expired in 2004.
She said that, if the ban still existed, Jared Lee Loughner, who is accused of the shooting, would have had a difficult time getting his gun and committing his crimes.
“As my father said, we glorify killing on movie and television screens and we call it entertainment,” Townsend said. “We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire weapons and violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation. And only a cleaning of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.”
Townsend then recalled that her father’s “heart was broken” after President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. He resigned as Attorney General less than a year after his death, having served a little more than three years. Elected to the Senate from New York State in 1964, he was assassinated in 1968 while running for president.
But Townsend also shared some of the good times she had with her father. She and her siblings would often eat dinner at the DOJ with their dad and play in his fifth-floor office with a football or their dog, Brumus.
Attorney General Eric Holder, who has a portrait of Kennedy hung in his office suite, said he has often heard stories about the personal side of Kennedy. Holder said Kennedy would sometimes walk around the halls at DOJ and pop into offices, surprising the employees. He said the Attorney General would also pull those walking by his office inside to involve them with his work.
“From this very chair, which sat at his desk throughout his time here,” Holder said, standing next to a red leather chair, “Attorney General Kennedy called on his team to reinvigorate the Department’s mission – and to approach the great challenges of the day, not as problems to be contained or kicked down the road, but as crises to be solved.”
President Barack Obama said in a pre-recorded video played at the tribute that Kennedy’s “memory still burns brightly.”
“For me, for so many Americans, Bobby Kennedy embodies an idea he spoke of so often that each of us can make a difference and all of us ought to try,” Obama said.
Today is Attorney General Eric Holder’s 60th birthday. The Main Justice staff wishes him a happy birthday.
Some of President Barack Obama’s nominees for federal judgeships may have to undergo second confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, some committee aides say.
The possibility of extra hearings for at least some of Obama’s nominees surfaced on Jan. 5, when Obama renominated all but one of his choices whose names he has sent to the Senate in the past two years, but who have yet to receive confirmation.
The committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), has already scheduled committee votes for nine nominees next Thursday, presumably because they are not controversial. Aides to Leahy and the ranking Republican on the committee, Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, are understood to be discussing which of the other nominees should undergo second hearings.
One nominee likely to receive considerably scrutiny is Goodwin Liu, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who is Obama’s choice for a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. That panel is widely regarded as the most liberal of the federal circuits, so nominees for it are likely to be closely watched by conservative Republicans.
Before the November elections, Democrats enjoyed a 12-7 advantage on the committee. But because of gains by Republicans that margin is sure to be narrowed when the Senate reorganization is complete.
Some residents of northern Indiana on Thursday learned about an important part of the federal government that many of their neighbors may be clueless about: the local U.S. Attorney’s office.
The Northern District of Indiana U.S. Attorney, David Capp, spoke to the Calumet Chapter of the League of Women Voters about how his office handles cases, including public corruption prosecutions, The Post-Tribune in Gary, Ind., reported. Hammond resident Albertine Dent was of the members of the women voters group who learned something new.
“A lot of people really have no clue about what the U.S. Attorney’s Office does,” Dent told the newspaper. “I thought it was really interesting how far back they can go to prosecute.” (The answer is five years for most federal crimes; for murder and a few other very serious charges there is no statute of limitations.)
Elizabeth Kurella of Hammond also acquired some knowledge about how citizens can help the U.S. Attorney’s office. Capp told residents to give tips to his office about wrongdoing whether the crimes are “dealing with $5,000 or $5 million,” according to The Post-Tribune.
“You always wonder when you should call and how we can turn over rocks to get information,” Kurella told the newspaper.
A special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is under investigation for allegedly stealing and selling black market cigarettes obtained by ATF agents during a sting operation, the Daily Press of Virginia reported.
The agent, Clifford D. Posey of the ATF’s Norfolk office, came under suspicion while working last year with Hampton police officers on an undercover task force as the officers were running sting operations, according to court documents cited by the newspaper.
The police officers said they discovered that Posey was having repeated contact without their knowledge with a man whom they had been investigating.
A sworn affidavit by J. Brian Burnett, a special agent with the Justice Department’s Inspector General’s office, says Posey moved cases of ATF cigarettes to his personal storage unit and then had a buyer go there to get the cases and leave the money.
Posey allegedly stole tens of thousands of dollars worth of ATF-owned cigarettes, sold many on the black market to people eager to avoid hefty federal, state and local taxes and pocketed the cash, the newspaper reported.
Burnett said in the affidavit that Posey “used his position as an ATF Special Agent to facilitate the embezzlement of property belonging to the United States.”
While he has yet to be charged, a federal search warrant affidavit indicates an active inquiry into the allegations, the newspaper reported.
Posey, who has worked as a federal special agent for about 10 years, was suspended without pay in early December.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Friday the formation and inaugural meeting of the Violence Against Women Federal and Tribal Prosecution Task Force, fulfilling a pledge he made during the Justice Department’s Tribal Nations Listening Session in October 2009.
“We know too well that tribal communities face unique law enforcement challenges and are struggling to reverse unacceptable rates of violence against women and children,” Holder said in a prepared statement. “The creation of the Violence Against Women Tribal Prosecution Task Force has been a priority for me since my visit with tribal leaders last year, and I believe it is a critical step in our work to improve public safety and strengthen coordination and collaboration concerning prosecution strategies with tribal communities.”
The task force will be chaired by Nebraska U.S. Attorney Deborah R. Gilg and include:
- Tribal Prosecutor Diane S. Cabrera, Crow Tribe of Montana
- Assistant U.S. Attorney Glynette R. Carson McNabb, District of New Mexico
- Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg S. Peterman, District of South Dakota
- Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Roe, Western District of Washington
- Assistant U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins, District of Utah
- Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia Hurd, District of Montana
- DOJ’s National Indian Country Training Coordinator Leslie A. Hagen
- Deputy Attorney General M. Brent Leonhard, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation or Oregon
- Chief Judge Theresa M. Pouley, Tulalip Tribal Court of Washington State
- Chief Prosecutor Sheri Freemont, Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian of Arizona
- Tribal Attorney Michelle Rivard Parks, Spirit Lake Tribe of North Dakota
- Staff Attorney Joshua Breedlove, Mississippi Choctaw
The task force also will include a group of advisors and liaisons from the Office of Violence Against Women, health care professionals and law enforcement officials.
The committee is supposed to produce a trial practice manual on the federal prosecution of offenses related to violence against women in Indian Country within one year. In addition, the task force will explore issues raised by professionals in the field and recommend ways for prosecutors to approach crimes involving domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.
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______________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2011
WWW.JUSTICE.GOV
REMARKS AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY BY ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER AT THE COMMEMORATION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ROBERT F. KENNEDY’S SWEARING-IN AS 64TH ATTORNEY GENERAL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
To Mrs. Kennedy and the Kennedy family, to our distinguished guests, to my colleagues, and to those who have served and supported our nation’s Department of Justice – it is my pleasure, and my great honor, to welcome you to the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building.
Today, we come together to celebrate the achievements and enduring contributions of our nation’s 64th Attorney General – a man whose legacy continues to guide us, whose memory continues to touch us, and whose example continues to inspire us.
As we reflect on his remarkable life, we also mourn the recent loss of another great champion for justice – Robert Kennedy’s dear friend and brother-in-law – Sargent Shriver. Sargent Shriver served our country in many ways: as an advocate for equal rights, as an Ambassador for this nation, and as an innovator in promoting global understanding and healing. Throughout his life, he worked to live up to his brother-in-law’s charge to all of us: to rely on the power of “deeds, not talk” to make a difference.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Shriver and Kennedy families – just as they are also with the family of Robert Kennedy’s long-time and trusted assistant, Angie Novello.
On Tuesday of this week, we lost both of these public servants. But, this afternoon, their presence is felt. As one member of the Kennedy family put it best – Sarge is smiling down on us today.
I believe he is. For this is, indeed, a special occasion.
For me, it is a tremendous privilege to be joined by so many former Department leaders who have made this a truly historic reunion. With us, we have former Attorneys General, and a cadre of Assistant Attorneys General, First Assistants, Administrative Aides, line attorneys, and support staff who worked alongside Attorney General Kennedy – in the Criminal Division, the Lands Division, the Antitrust Division, the Tax Division, the Civil Rights Division, and the Attorney General’s Office, among other components. If you were part of the Justice Department from 1961 to1964, please stand so that we may recognize you.
Thank you all for being here and for helping us pay tribute to one of America’s most committed public servants – and one of this Department’s most effective leaders. There is much to admire about Robert Kennedy. And there is much to learn from his tenure as Attorney General – even now, exactly 50 years after Robert Kennedy stood with his older brother in the East Room of the White House and swore the oath of his new office.
Like many of you, I can still remember those days.
I can still remember sitting in the basement of my childhood home in Queens, watching – on our little black-and-white television – the inauguration of a young, charismatic new President. That was January 20th, 1961 – half a century ago. I was in the fourth grade. And I can still recall my mother’s enthusiasm, my father’s pride, and my own sense and certainty that something exciting – something important – was happening.
The following day was marked by another historical moment, when Attorney General Robert Kennedy was sworn in and – after Justice Department guards initially turned him away for lack of an ID card – was finally shown to his office on the 5th floor of this building.
That was January 21st, 1961.
My understanding of the Attorney General – as a visionary, as a force for progress, and as a model of leadership – had not yet taken form. But it would soon enough.
Just two years later, there was much talk about Attorney General Kennedy – and the successful effort that he led to integrate the University of Alabama. On June 11, 1963, my family watched – and celebrated – news reports that two brave, young students had stepped past Governor George Wallace to become the first African Americans to enroll in the university.
Years later, one of those students – a wonderful woman named Vivian Malone Jones –would become my sister-in-law. Long before I married her sister, Vivian became the University of Alabama’s first African-American graduate. Shortly after earning her degree, she moved to Washington and began her career right here – in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Vivian passed away several years ago, but – throughout her life – she was inspired by, and grateful for, the courage that was shown by this Department under Attorney General Kennedy’s leadership.
The results of that famous “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” – the progress that it marked, the commitment that it signaled, and the justice that it ensured – served as my first lesson from Attorney General Kennedy, even if it would take many years before I could fully understand it. I learned that the law is not an abstraction. It is a powerful tool – that can either build walls or build bridges. It is a strong, deft instrument that affects that lives and circumstances of real people and real communities – for good or for ill. It is an effective means to transform our society – into one that serves the interests of many or the few.
No one can doubt how Robert Francis Kennedy chose to use the law when he was Attorney General. And he taught us that that law can be a powerful force for good – if we are willing, as he was, to roll up our sleeves, to summon our best efforts, and to lead from the front lines of change. In so doing, Attorney General Kennedy championed the cause of the least among us – and made our nation more just, more fair, and more humane.
The lessons of his life inspired my own decision, after finishing law school, to come to work in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division – just as Robert Kennedy did shortly after he graduated from law school. I arrived here in 1976 – a dozen years after Attorney General Kennedy had left the Department. Yet his presence was still felt. And memories of him were – still – often shared.
I was told stories of how he’d walk the hallways of this building – ducking into the offices, startling and amazing Department employees. I heard that those who visited the 5th floor were likely to see his dog, Brumus, or young Kennedy children running by. And I learned that anyone who ran into Attorney General Kennedy in the hallway was likely to be pulled into his office – and into whatever case he was working on. From this very chair, which sat at his desk throughout his time here, Attorney General Kennedy called on his team to reinvigorate the Department’s mission – and to approach the great challenges of the day, not as problems to be contained or kicked down the road, but as crises to be solved.
As a young line attorney, I never imagined that I would have the opportunity, and the honor, of taking on the role that Robert Kennedy once assumed – a position that the work of leaders like him made possible for someone like me to achieve.
With this honor, comes an obligation – a duty to extend, and to strengthen, the work that he began here.
In his first speech as Attorney General, Robert Kennedy argued that the time for apathy had long since passed, and that it was time to, “[prove] to the world that we really mean it when we say that all men are created free and equal before the law.”
“All of us,” he said, “might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world – but we don’t. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.”
Despite all that’s been accomplished in recent decades, we – still – do not live in tranquil times. We continue to face difficulty, injustice, division, and an array of challenges that will serve to sharpen our skills, steel our resolve, focus our energy, and impel us to action.
In times like these, the importance of Robert Kennedy’s work becomes ever clearer.
And I am proud to report that, in today’s Department of Justice, this work goes on – in our offices, before our courts, and out in our communities. It goes on in our appeals to those in power and in our aspirations for those in need. It goes on in our efforts to protect our national security, to safeguard civil liberties, to expand opportunities, to prevent and reduce violence and crime, to combat the causes and consequences of hate, to uphold the Constitution, to strengthen the rule of law, to protect the most vulnerable among us, and to honor the values that were at the root of Attorney General Kennedy’s actions and the heart of his decisions: integrity, inclusion, tolerance, and – above all – justice.
So, as we celebrate Robert Kennedy’s life and his impact on this Department, let us also commit ourselves to carrying on – and carrying out – his mission to make gentle the life of this world, and to make good on the promise of our nation. Let us answer his call, “to face up to our nation’s problems and live up to its founding principles.” And let us heed the wisdom of his extraordinary example.
This afternoon – from our video tribute, from our panelists’ discussion, and from the words and memories that his beloved daughter, Kathleen, is here to share – we have the chance to see a fuller picture of Robert Kennedy – and to expand our understanding of this man and his vision, as well as our ability to emulate his actions.
Half a century ago, Robert Kennedy proved that a single person has the power to improve the world around us. Today, fifty years later, his example remains emblazoned on the hearts and souls of the American people, and his voice echoes through the generations – calling on us to shoulder our responsibility to serve, to serve, and to serve.
This lesson – and this message – still points us down the path that Robert Kennedy never finished traveling.
So, let us keep going.
Let us continue his fight for a world free from injustice.
Let us move forward – despite the obstacles before us and the cynics around us – toward progress.
Let us act with optimism, without delay, and with adherence to the highest standards of professionalism – the very standards that Attorney General Kennedy established.
And let us signal to all the world that, in America today, the spirit of Robert Kennedy lives on – in his family, in his former colleagues, in this Department of Justice, and – above all – in each of you.
Thank you.
And, now, it’s my pleasure to join you in watching a Department-made film tribute to Attorney General Kennedy, which we have created in his honor and in an attempt to share who the man in that portrait behind me – the man who once sat in the chair beside me – was, to his staff, to this Department, and to our nation.
But, first, we have a special treat – a video message from someone who very much wanted to be with us today: the President of the United States, Barack Obama.
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I want to thank each of our panelists for sharing their insights and remarkable experiences with us. And, now, it’s my honor to turn today’s program over to Kathleen Kennedy Townsend – the first of Robert and Ethel Kennedy’s eleven children, the 66th Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, and an alumna of the Department’s Office of Justice Programs.
Like her father, and like so many in her family, Kathleen’s life and career have been defined by a commitment to public service. And we are honored that she has returned to the Department today to help us honor her father and to speak on behalf of her family.
Please join me in welcoming Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
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Two federal prosecutors are among a long list of names being mentioned as possible candidates to replace retiring Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.).
Tim Purdon (Vogel Law Firm)
One of the names being circulated is current North Dakota U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon. Purdon took over the U.S. Attorney’s office Aug. 5, 2010, after working in the private sector at the Vogel Law Firm in Bismarck, N.D. He also has worked at the Bismarck firm of Dickson & Purdon (now Dickson Law Office). The federal prosecutor came under fire during the confirmation process.
Republican critics said President Barack Obama chose Purdon over more-qualified candidates due to his political connections. Purdon — who was on the executive committee of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party from February 2006 until his resignation earlier this month — had no prosecutorial experience. Read about his full background here.
Drew Wrigley (DOJ)
Another possible candidate is ex-U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley. Wright was nominated by President George W. Bush and headed the North Dakota office until Sept. 13, 2009. He resigned to become the vice president of Fargo-based Noridian Administrative Services, which helps businesses with information management and customer service.
Last year, Wrigley was mentioned as a possible candidate to replace retiring Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.). However, there is speculation he might rather run for governor in 2012.
