Ethel Kennedy Worked for Years in Social Justice Prior to Her Death at 96

After suffering a stroke in early October, Representative Joe Kennedy III announced that Ethel Kennedy had died at the age of 96. Ethel was the wife of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and following the news of her death, many wanted to know more about her political beliefs.

While the Kennedys are generally seen as one of the most liberal families in America, Ethel's son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recently endorsed Donald Trump for president. Here's what we know about Ethel's political beliefs.

Ethel was, perhaps unsurprisingly, devoted to social justice and human rights throughout her life, and built an impressive legacy on those fronts after her husband's assassination in 1968.

“Along with a lifetime’s work in social justice and human rights, our mother leaves behind nine children, 34 grandchildren, and 24 great-grandchildren, along with numerous nieces and nephews, all of whom love her dearly,” Joe Kennedy said in the post announcing her death.

Ethel first came to prominence when her husband, Robert F. Kennedy, made a run at the presidency in 1968. That run ultimately ended in his assassination, and Ethel was pregnant with her youngest daughter, Rory, at the time.

In the decades after her husband's death, Ethel began to work as an outspoken activist on behalf of human rights and the environment.

She founded the nonprofit Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights to advocate on behalf of the causes her husband believed in. She was active both in the U.S. and around the world, marching with Cesar Chavez on behalf of the Farm Workers movement and confronting dictators in Kenya.

As recently as 2018, she joined a hunger strike in protest of the Trump administration's policy of separating families at the southern border.

“Generations of Americans did not toil and sacrifice to build a country where children and their parents are placed in cages to advance a cynical political agenda,” she said in a statement at the time.

Ethel was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2014 in honor of her decades of work related to defending human rights all over the world.

RFK Jr. — who has brought controversy to the Kennedy family because of his independent campaign for president, his endorsement of Donald Trump, and his unorthodox views about a wide range of issues — also shared a statement about Ethel after her death.

In his post on Twitter, RFK Jr. said that his mother could be harsh, especially when she felt her children were not living up to her expectations of them.

“But she was also intensely loyal, and we always knew that she would stand fiercely behind us when we came under attack by others,” he said. She “deeded to each of her 11 children her love of good stories, her athleticism, her competitive spirit, and the deep curiosity about the world and the intense interest in people of all backgrounds, which caused her to pepper everyone she met — from cab drivers to presidents — with a relentless cascade of questions about their lives.”