Chris Matthews on the ‘Raging Spirit’ of Bobby Kennedy

Fifty years ago, in the spring of 1968, Robert F. Kennedy launched an idealistic campaign for the U.S. presidency, promising to assemble a coalition that bridged racial and class divisions at a time when the country was deeply polarized. The campaign was brutally ended by Kennedy’s assassination in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews is the author of the new book Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit, a close-up look at Kennedy’s life and a reflection on the meaning of his legacy today.

After Kennedy was assassinated, Americans lined the railroad tracks to view the train that bore his body from New York to Washington, D.C. Images of the mourners taken from the train by magazine photographer Paul Fusco begin and end Matthews’s book, and are also the starting point for SFMOMA’s new exhibition The Train: RFK’s Last Journey. Fusco’s captivating images are featured along with works by Rein Jelle Terpstra and Philippe Parreno. For this special event, Matthews reflects on those photographs and the life and work of RFK.

A book signing will follow the talk; books are available for purchase at the event.

About the Speaker

Chris Matthews, born and raised in Philadelphia, served for two years with the Peace Corps in Africa. Returning home to the United States, he became a presidential speechwriter, a top aide to Speaker of the House Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr., and a syndicated columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. He is now the host of MSNBC’s Hardball. He wrote Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero and Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit.