i thought, you know, if these beautiful passionate kennedys would show it by a phone call, it would mean something to coretta. wafford contacts kennedy s brother-in-law, sergeant shriver who is in charge of civil rights. hello. wafford asks if kennedy will call coretta to offer support. he said it will only work if i present the idea to kennedy, without any of the staff hearing. shriver knows kennedy s team will block anything that might cost them votes in the south. the kennedys were never great advocates of civil rights. generally they regarded it as a problem for their campaign. they would have preferred not to discuss it at all.