Robert F. Kennedy’s Funeral Train
Featuring images that went unseen for 30 years, Paul Fusco’s photobook is a poignant tribute to a nation in mourning
“The blow was monumental. Hope-on-the-rise had again been shattered and those in most need of hope crowded the tracks of Bobby’s last train stunned into disbelief and watched that hope trapped in a coffin pass and disappear from their lives,” reads a quote from Paul Fusco on the final page of his critically acclaimed photobook RFK Funeral Train. In June 1968, Fusco captured the aftermath of the assassination of the Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. Rediscovered and published 30 years later, this collection of 53 color photographs is a heartfelt documentation of a nation in mourning.
On assignment for Look magazine, Fusco was given exclusive access to photograph from onboard the train carrying Kennedy’s coffin from New York City to Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The images here are presented, as they are in the book, in chronological order to reflect that route. A second edition of the publication, Paul Fusco: RFK, includes additional coverage of the funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, and the night burial in Arlington with members of the Kennedy family. This first edition, however, is focused solely on the two million people who lined the tracks to honor Kennedy as his coffin passed. The diversity and sheer number of those who populate the frames reflect the terrible loss felt by individuals and communities, from all walks of life.
"When Bobby rose to try to reestablish a government of hope the hearts of Americans quickened and excitement flared. Then tragedy struck again."
- Paul Fusco
"Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not."
- Robert F. Kennedy
"A river of working-class people came down to march past Kennedy's coffin, and this endless line of people had really loved him, loved Bobby Kennedy like no political figure in years had been loved."
- Norman Mailer
Shop for fine prints and the original RFK Funeral Train photobook here.
