Two months later, the election of the United States' first black president marked the actualization of decades of work for Kennedy, who was a champion of civil rights throughout his nearly 50-year tenure in the Senate.

In the 1960s, as civil rights battles raged across the country, it was Kennedy's brother, President John F. Kennedy, who sought passage of a landmark bill to ban discrimination.

And when JFK was assassinated, Ted Kennedy, already filling his older brother's Senate seat, filled his shoes, too, helping to push the legislation through

Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who worked closely with Kennedy on civil rights issues, said Kennedy was "our shepherd, he was our champion, he was our leader."

The first major speech Kennedy made on the Senate floor was in support of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which banned discrimination based on race or gender in public places, schools and places of employment.

"He didn't have to do it. He was not from the heart of the American South ... but I think because of his upbringing, his faith, his passion, he would say over and over again, 'We must do what is right. It's the right thing to do. We have a moral obligation,' " Lewis said.

And even as his 1980 presidential bid came to an end, Kennedy kept his focus on equal rights.

"And we can be proud that our party stands plainly and publicly and persistently for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment," he said in the keynote address at the Democratic convention that year.

"Women hold their rightful place at our convention, and women must have their rightful place in the Constitution of the United States. On this issue we will not yield; we will not equivocate; we will not rationalize, explain or excuse. We will stand for E.R.A. and for the recognition at long last that our nation was made up of founding mothers as well as founding fathers."

While the White House eluded his grasp, the longtime Massachusetts senator was considered one of the most effective legislators of the past few decades. In addition to the Civil Rights Act, Kennedy played a key role in passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act and the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act. He earned a reputation as an outspoken liberal standard-bearer during a conservative-dominated era from the 1980s to the early 2000s.

The senator pulled no punches when he felt civil rights might be in danger. In 1987, Kennedy led the opposition to President Reagan's nominee for the Supreme Court, Robert Bork. The senator was quick to warn that he thought Bork's conservative ideology would be dangerous for the country.

"In Robert Bork's America, there is no room at the inn for blacks and no place in the Constitution for women. And in our America, there should be no seat on the Supreme Court for Robert Bork," Kennedy charged. His effort was successful, as Reagan's nominee was rejected.

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