Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties

Harris Wofford

University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992 - Biography & Autobiography - 516 pages

When former public servant and college president Harris Wofford soundly defeated former governor and U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh for the U.S. Senate in a 1991 special Pennsylvania election, it made national and international news, but few Pennsylvanians or Americans recognized his name.

Yet Wofford had been a special assistant to President John F. Kennedy and was one of the founders of the Peace Corps. During the decade of struggle from Montgomery to Memphis, he was and advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr. With independent views of his own, Harris Wofford was witness from within the White House to the bright and the dark side of the Kennedy administration. Focusing on how the politics and ideas came together to shape critical decisions, Wofford's memoir captures the personal drama of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King as their characters were tested. Of Kennedys and Kings not only makes sense of the sixties, but gives us a glimpse into the issues closest to the heart of one of America's most interesting senators.

Wofford's vivid recollections and reflections shed light on the sixties and on the dramatic domestic and international politics of the era. Of Kennedys and Kings provides a timely reminder of what can be accomplished with leaders who are, with all their human feelings, committed to public service and responsible political action.

About the author

Harris Llewellyn Wofford was born in New York City on April 9, 1926. In 1944, he volunteered for the Army Air Forces but never left the country. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1948. He and his wife Clare Lindgren Wofford traveled for seven months in Pakistan and India and worked on a kibbutz in Israel for a year. Their book, India Afire, was published in 1951. He received law degrees from Yale University and Howard University in 1954. He began practicing law in Washington and was a counsel to the United States Civil Rights Commission until 1958. He taught law at the University of Notre Dame and joined the Kennedy campaign. After the election, Wofford became a special assistant for civil rights and helped found the Peace Corps. He later became its representative in Africa and its associate director. In 1965, he joined Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights movement in the South. Wofford was president of the State University of New York College at Old Westbury from 1966 to 1970 and the president of Bryn Mawr College from 1970 to 1978. He practiced law in Philadelphia from 1980 to 1986. He was the state's secretary of labor and industry from 1987 to 1991. He served as a U. S. senator from Pennsylvania from May 1991 until 1994 and helped create the National and Community Service Act of 1993, which created AmeriCorps, the Senior Corps, and Learn and Serve America. After leaving the Senate, he was named head of AmeriCorps and its parent corporation. His memoir, Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties, was published in 1980. He received the Presidential Citizens Medal for a lifetime of humanitarian work in 2012. He died from complications of a fall on January 21, 2019 at the age of 92.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties
• Author: Harris Wofford
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992
• ISBN: 0822958082, 9780822958086
• Length: 516 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / African American & Black; Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / General; Biography & Autobiography / Political; Biography & Autobiography / Presidents & Heads of State; History / United States / 20th Century; Political Science / American Government / National; Political Science / Political Process / General