bobby knew that he had to protect them. >> it was really a question of doing the right thing, politics be damned. >> bobby sends in a federal force to protect the lives of martin luther king jr. and the freedom riders. >> and this was bobby's real baptism in terms of what the civil rights movement meant to him. >> bobby kennedy has to be educated. he doesn't come to the civil rights struggle with anything much different than any other wealthy white man of privilege would. >> but after the freedom riders, bobby went from wanting nothing to do with the civil rights movement to feeling he had to play a role. >> i think we just have to face up to our responsibilities. it's 1961, not 1861. and we're going to have to continue to make progress. >> for jack, the freedom riders