Photos from the Vault

1968 Robert F. Kennedy assassination

Memorial services were held at Mission San Luis Obispo and in Oceano following the murder of Robert F. Kennedy.

Telegram-Tribune photos by Barry MinettJune 5-10 1968A scant two months earlier the nation had been rocked by the assassination of Martin Luther King and the urban violence that followed.Now the nightmare would replay.

Voters were deeply divided over the war in Viet Nam the 1968 presidential election was becoming a referendum on the nation’s direction, continue the Johnson administration policy of escalation or end the war.Robert F. Kennedy, a voice of the anti-war movement, had won the California primary and seemed on his way to the Democratic nomination for president. After a midnight victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, he was shot. RFK would die 25 hours later. For those who mourned the assassination of Robert’s brother, President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the double shock would be deep and lasting.Children of the 1960’s were taught in civics classes that the American way was to debate ideas in the open. The best ideas would win a majority of votes. The process would deliver leaders representing the nation’s best interests.The events of the 1968 contained other lessons.Echoes of that time sound can be heard in today’s presidential contest.The Democratic Party would splinter in 1968 and Richard Nixon would be elected president, as a nation searched for someone who appeared to have answers for a nation in crisis.In keeping with the Kennedy’s Catholic heritage, as part of a national day of mourning a memorial service was held Sunday at the San Luis Obispo Mission, complete with a flag draped coffin. Another memorial was held in Oceano the same day where Robert Kennedy’s speeches on the underprivileged were quoted.Sen. Edward Kenndy gave the funeral address at the main ceremony in New York, “He saw wrong and tried to right it. He saw suffering and tried to stop it. He saw war and tried to end it.”Sharp viewers will also note that during this time James Earl Ray was arrested by Scotland Yard in England for the murder of Martin Luther King.Also peace leader William Francis Lee Stefanech, 23, of San Luis Obispo was arrested and charged with violation of the Selective Service Act after failing to report for induction into military service. He was a graduate of Mission High School and had attended Cuesta College and Cal Poly. Stefanech turned himself into the FBI and was held at the county jail on $1,000 bail.