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RFK Hits Chinatown

Oct. 5, 1964 - Robert F. Kennedy carried his drive for the Senate into Chinatown last night and received the most politely tumultuous reception of his campaign.

The enthusiasm that has surrounded Kennedy during much of his travel in the last month was again displayed as the Democratic candidate’s motorcade wove through the packed crowds on Pell, Mott, and Mulberry Streets.

The residents, jammed into the narrow streets or crowded on balconies and fire escapes above the neon lights, wave and shouted, “We want Bobby.”

There was one major difference from other areas, however. When the police asked the people to get out of the road and onto the sidewalk, they did so.

The shopping area was more like a weekday than a Sunday in its vitality. Many of the curio and food shops were open, and chains of paper lanterns stretched across the narrow streets.

On Pell Street, in the modern building of the Gee How Oak Tin Association, there is a long balcony which was jammed with waving, cheering Chinese-Americans. The Chinatown teenagers responded to Kennedy with the same squeals of delight that he had encountered elsewhere.

The occasion that took Kennedy to the area was the grand opening of the Chinatown Democratic Club, at Chatham Square and Mott Street.

Despite a drizzle, which did nothing to reduce the crowds, Kennedy set off immediately on his tour. The motorcade was led by a children’s brass band from the Chinatown Community Center, followed by a donkey named Ed.

Kennedy, smiling and waving, stood in an open convertible with Mayor Robert Wagner seated in front of him. In the crowd, estimated by the police at 15,000, there were only three sign-carrying dissidents.

Long-time residents of the area said the crowd was the largest they could recall at a political event. After his motorcade, Kennedy returned to Chatham Square for a brief address, visited the new Democratic headquarters, and then stopped in at a Democratic dinner at the Toy Wan Restaurant.

Before he went to Chinatown, he addressed a men’s club meeting at a Manhattan Jewish center and visited the Hebrew Home for the Aged in the Bronx, where he received a warm welcome.



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