Martin and Bobby A Journey Toward Justice

Martin and Bobby follows the lives and experiences of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, showing how and where their work intersected and how their initially wary relationship evolved from challenging and testing each other to finally “arriving in the same place” as allies fighting poverty and racism. King’s courage showed Kennedy how to act on one’s moral principles, and Kennedy’s growing awareness of the country’s racial and economic divide gave King hope that the nation’s leaders could truly support justice. Young readers will be quickly engaged by the alternating details of each man’s final hours, before flashing back to compare their very different childhoods, young adult years, famous words and speeches, and rise to prominence. Full of compelling historic photos and including sidebars to extend learning, source notes, a bibliography, suggested places to visit, and a timeline, Martin and Bobby is an invaluable addition to any student’s or history buff’s bookshelf.

Claire Rudolf Murphy is the author of 16 award-winning fiction and nonfiction books for children and young adults, including Gold Rush Women, Children of Alcatraz, Marching with Aunt Susan, and My Country ’Tis of Thee. Since 2008 she has taught in Hamline University’s Writing for Children and Young Adults graduate program.

Prologue: “What Kind of a Nation We Are” . . . .vii
PART I: APRIL 1968
1 “I Think We Can Do Better” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3 “What We Really Stand For” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4 “When Is This Violence Going to Stop?” . . . . . . . 25
PART II: 1925–1967
5 “To Whom Much Is Given,
Much Is Asked”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6 “Until Justice Runs Down Like Water”. . . . . . . . . 43
7 “The Time Has Come for This
Nation to Fulfill Its Promise”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
8 “I Have a Dream”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
9 “A Tiny Ripple of Hope”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
PART III: 1968
10 “Do They Know About
Martin Luther King?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
11 “I Have Some Very Sad News
for All of You” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
12 “A Time of Shame and Sorrow”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
13 “We Still Have Bobby Kennedy”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
14 “Something Died in All of America” . . . . . . . . . . 117
Epilogue: “America Is Not Yet Finished”. . . . . . . 125
Author’s Note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Time Line. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Places to Visit, in Person or Online. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Image Credits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158