Martin and Bobby: A Journey Toward Justice

by Claire Rudolf Murphy

A Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People 2019

Martin and Bobby follows the lives, words, and final days of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. Initially wary of one another, their relationship evolved from challenging and testing each other to finally “arriving in the same place” as allies fighting poverty and racism. The stories of King and Kennedy reveal how life experiences affect a leader’s ability to show empathy for all people and how great political figures don’t work in a vacuum but are influenced by events and people around them.

Martin’s courage showed Bobby how to act on one’s moral principles, and Bobby’s growing awareness of the country’s racial and economic divide gave Martin hope that the nation’s leaders could truly support justice. Fifty years later, their lives and words still stir people young and old and offer inspiration and insight on how our country can face the historic challenges of economic and racial inequality.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

176 pages, Hardcover

Published October 2, 2018

About the author

Claire Rudolf Murphy has loved history since she was a young girl; in fact she majored in it at Santa Clara University. Murphy is the author of fourteen books for children. A former middle and high school teacher, she is a member of the faculty of Hamline University's Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults. She lives in Washington.

Reviews

[Allison TeVelde · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-timed read for me, with MLK day being the day I finished it. Murphy writes in a clear, captivating way - nothing like most textbook versions we have all had to read. I appreciated having a deeper historical context for this day.
I have to admit I was a bit deceived... I expected to discover these two were pals when I picked up the book. They barely knew each other, and there was distrust on both sides. The title had my hopes up they were friends or something. Also, the author veers towards her personal viewpoints towards the end of the book, which is interesting, but I preferred to come to my own conclusions.
Regardless, I appreciated the history lesson, which offers very real and current insight into today's culture, including topics like American poverty, justice, and the BLM movement. What would Martin Luther King, Jr. do if he were around today?

[Mary Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This biography takes a look at leadership in a difficult time, telling the story of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy and the intersection of their lives. Using primary sources the author goes behind the scenes in these men's lives helping readers understand what motivated them, their struggles and the pressures they faced while trying to lead their country through the thickets and thorns of racism, poverty and war. These same issues confront us in these times and the story of these imperfect yet, courageous and beloved political leaders has much to offer.

[Christine Mcdonnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Martin and Bobby; a journey towards justice, Claire Rudolph Murphy braids the lives and careers of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, showing differences and parallels, the ways they influenced one another and the times they disagreed: King, the passionate and determined civil rights leader and Kennedy in his position as Secretary of State during his brother’s presidency and then as senator and presidential candidate. Through this lens, we see two leaders grow and change during the rise of the civil rights movement and the turbulent years of the 1960s. The book culminates in the assassination of MLK and the deeply personal and heartfelt speech Bobby Kennedy gives on that terrible day. He is assassinated only two months later.
Written with clarity and feeling, Martin and Bobby captures the events, the thinking, and the emotions of these challenging times, and brings to life two leaders lost too soon.

[Tina Hoggatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Conversational and intimate in tone, filled with the urgency and import of the time and the individual and shared stories of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, this slim volume is dense with history, emotion, revelation, and loss. The author weaves together the life stories, rise to power and influence, and moral fiber of Martin and Bobby, and outlines the developing relationship between the two. The forces of change that ravaged America's social fabric in the mid-to-late 1960's are clearly laid out for the reader, and the moral stakes of the nation are clearly defined. Yet this is first and foremost a loving and admiring portrait of two complex, driven, and gifted men whose lives and work changed the course of history. With President Kennedy's death, Bobby's beloved older brother, the darkness in America came forward and the reader experiences the unrest, violence and senseless deaths that marked the decade. Because the author has taken the time provide historical context, tell the family stories and the course of their political lives, when first Martin and then Bobby are assassinated we understand what their deaths meant to their families, supporters, and the nation. I was most grateful for a final chapter tying the civil rights and anti-war movements to today's civil unrest and America's ongoing search for justice.

An invaluable guide and reference work for readers of all ages, this book will be especially useful for young readers doing research or seeking to understand how the politics and social movements of the past relate to our world today, and are deep currents that still influence the nation. Boxed quotes and black and white photographs illustrate the lives of MLK and RFK and those they loved and worked with. An author's note makes clear how personal history and deep research drove the telling of this most American of stories. An impressive and necessary read.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate the research and careful writing that went into this book. Although many readers or students of history may know a little bit about the lives of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., they won't be familiar with the stories that are shared here. It is intriguing to watch the transformation in Bobby and how he grew increasingly concerned about poverty, civil rights and Vietnam, so much so that in the end, his thoughts were more closely aligned with King than his upbringing might have predicted. The author does not pretend that the two men were friends, but they were fighting for similar goals, and it is shocking to think that they were both assassinated within two months of each other in 1968. My admiration for both men only increased as I read this story and considered how Kennedy chose to address the audience at a campaign rally in a black section of Indianapolis, informing them of King's death and somehow keeping them from rioting. Once again, in a time where it seems leadership is missing or unconcerned about justice, it is encouraging to find the example of two men who cared about justice and stood tall in leading the way, no matter the personal cost to each of them. The author ends her book with a rallying call to continue the fight for justice and change. I appreciated the conversational and very personal writing style she used in this book. Clearly, she lived through the times she describes, and just as clearly, she has been marked by those times. Would that all readers would soak up inspiration from this book as they decide what is worth fighting for! Having archival photographs and actual voices from those times lends an immediacy to the events being described here.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book for young adult readers interested in what it takes to make a better society through individual and collective action. The path is never without obstacles or straightforward, and building trust is crucial. Author Clair Rudolph Murphy deftly chronicles how Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy ultimately became allies during a very turbulent time in our history. She makes sense of the political and cultural movements that struggled for justice some fifty years ago.