RFK's Legacy Remembered 50 Years After Assassination
KOREATOWN (CBSLA) -- Politicians, city officials and students came together Saturday to commemorate and remember the life and legacy of Robert F. Kennedy on the grounds where he was assassinated 50 years ago.
Several elected officials, including Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and California Senate President pro Tem Emeritus Kevin de León, spoke on the relevance of Kennedy's vision while students of RFK School for the Visual Arts and Humanities put on a Social Justice Art Exhibit.
On June 5, 1968, RFK was shot three times at the former Ambassador Hotel after winning the California Presidential Primary.
Dolores Huerta, Paul Schrade and Rosey Grier, who were with RFK at the Ambassador Hotel the day he was assassinated, were among those in attendance at Saturday's event.
"We need good schools. We need good housing. We need food. Decent education for kids, that's what he was all about," said Schrade, was one of five people also struck by gunfire the night Kennedy was assassinated.
On the same site where the Ambassador Hotel once stood now stands the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools.
The Ambassador Hotel was a popular filming location for both television shows and movies. The Academy Awards were hosted at the former hotel a number of times before it was eventually demolished in 2005.