U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Sr., a Democratic presidential candidate, speaks at a campaign stop in Indiana in May 1968. He was shot on June 5, 1968, in Los Angeles.

Robert F. Kennedy Sr. is a tantalizing “what if” of recent history. Kennedy was at the height of his promise when he was cut down by an assassin’s bullet in June 1968 on the night of his victories in the California and South Dakota Democratic presidential primaries. Would our political situation today be different had he not been killed?

The centenary of Kennedy’s birth, which falls on Nov. 20, is a fitting time to reexamine his life and legacy. This anniversary coincides with the most serious attack on American democracy since the Civil War. Donald Trump’s cruel policies, disregard for the rule of law and authoritarian power grabs defy everything Kennedy represented. To make matters worse, Kennedy’s son is leading an assault on public health. Still, Sen. Kennedy’s life can inspire us to preserve our democracy and make it more equitable.

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A striking characteristic of Kennedy’s career was his capacity for growth. He evolved from a narrow-minded young man who worked briefly for Sen. Joseph McCarthy into a visionary leader who opposed the Vietnam War and fought for the disenfranchised. Kennedy biographer Arthur Schlesinger Jr. identified RFK’s “experiencing nature” as the key to his growth: Lived experiences opened his eyes to the lives of others. Schlesinger wrote: “The insights he brought to politics – insights earned in a labor of self-education that only death could stop — led him to see power not as an end in itself but as the means of redeeming the powerless.”

Kennedy’s service as attorney general was critical to his political evolution. His brother John F. Kennedy initially moved slowly on civil rights to avoid........

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