Paul Fusco, American (1930 – 2020)
RFK Funeral Train, 1968 (FUP1968010K003), 1968, printed 2011
Cibachrome print
16.875 x 20.875 in
Gift of John Andrew MacMahon, Class of 1995
I TA a class in Chambers, so I see this photograph twice a week when I enter and exit the room. The first time I noticed it, I thought I saw someone who resembled Davidson’s very own president, Doug Hicks. There’s a person in the front of the photograph with similar glasses and a haircut, and for a moment, I thought it was him. However, I quickly assumed that it wasn’t President Hicks, but just to be sure, I looked up the photo and the story behind it. While I did not uncover the identity of the photograph’s subject, I did discover the powerful scene that it captured, a moment of deep national mourning and collective loss.
The photograph is part of Paul Fusco’s RFK Funeral Train series, which documents the aftermath of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1968. Commissioned by Look magazine, Fusco was given exclusive access to photograph from onboard the train that carried Kennedy’s body from New York to Washington, DC. What struck me when I learned more about the photo was the overwhelming sense of grief it captures. The people lining the tracks to see Kennedy’s coffin were not just mourning the loss of a political figure, but the loss of hope. Fusco’s image shows us the faces of a grieving nation—young and old, standing side by side, stunned by the tragedy. The sheer number and diversity of mourners reflect the collective heartbreak of a country in mourning.
Born in 1930 in Leominster, Massachusetts, Paul Fusco’s photography was shaped by his service in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and later by his studies in photojournalism at Ohio University. He worked for Look magazine, where he covered social issues across the U.S. and around the world, focusing on marginalized groups and the oppressed. His iconic RFK Funeral Train series, capturing the grief of a nation after Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, remains one of his most celebrated works. Fusco’s photography has been exhibited worldwide and inspired an HBO documentary. He passed away in 2020, leaving behind a lasting legacy of powerful photojournalism.
Check out the work in the Chambers building on campus!
– Oliver Poduschnick ’25