Charles Ogletree

As I look back, even though his name is not on much of what happened thereafter, his spirit of bringing people together was so important. It led to the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Public Accommodations Act, and a major general advance in race relations like nothing we had ever seen.

What was lost because of his death was a real opportunity to further narrow the racial divide after the Jim Crow era.The assassinations of John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. were a telling blow because we lost the moral authority to speak with courage and conviction to talk about "one" America. Their deaths allowed for dissident voices to talk about the racial divide.

Had Kennedy lived, the relationship between South Boston and Roxbury would have been way different. Tip O'Neill would have been a more effective leader locally and nationally. Boston's tradition of being first for freedom and pushing for independence would have been more influential. His loss was absolutely enormous. On comparing the Democratic presidents since Kennedy on race relations: Jimmy Carter had a moral compass but didn't have the political support. Bill Clinton had the instrumental qualities but lacked the moral authority. Kennedy's presidency cut across religions, ethnicities, genders, and class. That was what was so profound about his loss. Charles Ogletree is a professor at Harvard Law School.