Senator Robert F. "Bobby" Kennedy had just lost the 1968 presidential primary election in Oregon to Senator Eugene McCarthy when Elvin Bell, Fresno, California's Mayor Pro Tem, hosted him for a breakfast meeting. As an exhausted Kennedy approached the podium to speak, Bell watched in amazement as Kennedy transformed from a frail man into a powerful speaker. Moments later as Bell rose to his feet with other audience members in a rousing standing ovation, he had no idea that he would never see his friend Bobby again. Bobby was shot the next day in Los Angeles and died within hours.

Bell,...