Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), a giant of liberalism in the latter half of 20th century, died of brain cancer on August 25 in Hyannisport, Massachusetts. He was 77. Read the TPM obituary here.
Pictured here are the Kennedy brothers in Hyannisport in 1948: John, Robert, and Edward.
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John, Robert, and Edward Kennedy in Hyannisport in July 1960.
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All grown up: the brothers on August 28, 1963 – Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Senator Edward Kennedy, and President John Kennedy,. The fatal shooting of the President in Dallas took place three months later.
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Kennedy and former Chancellor of West Germany (1969-1974) Willy Brandt at a Schönberg town hall ceremony in Berlin on November 28, 1989. Kennedy visited Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin wall.
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Kennedy and Berlin’s then-governing mayor, Walter Momper on November 28, 1989. The Berlin Wall and Brandenburg Gate are in the background.
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Kennedy at a reception in Bonn, Germany on April 16, 1971 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
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Kennedy after a meeting with President Jimmy Carter at the White House on June 5, 1980. Emerging from the 90-minute-long meeting, Kennedy said he was still in the presidential race, challenging Carter for the Democratic party’s nomination.
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Kennedy ended up losing the primary to Carter in a bitter campaign, but he delivered the keynote speech at the 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York on August 12. He ended the famous speech with the words, “For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”
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Kennedy discusses his vote on the nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court prior to the call to order of the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 6, 1987. The Senator was a primary attacker against Bork’s nomination, taking to the Senate floor within 45 minutes of the President’s announcement and speaking forcefully in a nationally televised speech: “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is — and is often the only — protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy… President Reagan is still our president. But he should not be able to reach out from the muck of Irangate, reach into the muck of Watergate and impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court and the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice.”
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Kennedy before an address to Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
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Kennedy speaks to niece Caroline Kennedy after her speech to the 2000 Democratic convention.
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After being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in May 2008 and undergoing surgery in June, Kennedy mostly stayed out of the public’s view. However, he insisted on appearing at the Democratic National Convention, and on August 25, the convention’s first night, Kennedy delivered an impassioned speech. “It is so wonderful to be here. Nothing – nothing – is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight,” he said.
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Kennedy at his Washington D.C. residence in 2006.
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Kennedy with Hillary Clinton in 2006.
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As the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, Kennedy heard testimony from Microsoft founder Bill Gates on education policy in March 2007.
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With Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in 2008.
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Kennedy, a vocal critic of the war in Iraq, shakes the hand of Gen. David Petraeus before a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting.
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In a move that surprised many and upset the Clinton, Ted Kennedy endorsed then-candidate Barack Obama for president in 2008. Here, Kennedy appears onstage with Obama at a campaign event.
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On July 9, 2008, a visibly ailing Sen. Kennedy walks into the Capitol building for the first time after his brain surgery.
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President Obama and Ted Kennedy walk the grounds of the White House in April 2009.
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The Kennedy family, of course, is no stranger to death. Here, Edward Kennedy stands by a newly-widowed Jacqueline Kennedy at her husband’s funeral.
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Mourners, led by Edward Kennedy (right), Jacqueline Kennedy (center), and Robert F. Kennedy, stream from the White House after part of JFK’s funeral ceremony.
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Ted Kennedy looks over the shoulders of President Lyndon Johnson at his brother Robert’s funeral.
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Kennedy and President Reagan in 1981.
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Ted Kennedy maneuvers a roller sled down Mt. Tom’s Alpine slide in Holyoke, Mass.
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Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1985.
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An emotional Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Ted Kennedy embrace as they pose for photographers following the wedding of his niece Caroline to Edwin Schlossberg in 1986.
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Kennedy enjoys a ride on a swing ride at Riverside Park Amusement Center in Agawam, Mass. in 1979.
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Sen. Edward Kennedy calls on President Lyndon Johnson at the White House.
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Teddie and Bobbie Kennedy receive stuffed animals and other souvenirs from the secretary of the London Zoo’s Children’s Zoo in 1938.
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Teddie and Bobbie Kennedy with a baby elephant at the Children’s Zoo.
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The official portrait of Sen. Edward Kennedy at the U.S. Capitol.
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