Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy
Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy
Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy
Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy
DO NOT USE Still photos
Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy
Excerpt from RFK's "Day of Affirmation" speech. Voiceover over images. Color footage of pro-Vietnam War supporters marching in New York City (crowd is predominantly made up of white, middle-aged men) they wave American flags and some carry handmade signs. MS of man carrying a sign "Support our fighting men in Vietnam." RFK: "There are those in every land who would label as "communist" every threat to their privilege. But may I say to you, as I have seen on my travels in all sections of the world, reform is not communism. And the denial of freedom, in whatever name, only strengthens the very communism it claims to oppose. "
Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy
BW footage of urban African American poverty. African American woman with a baby, young black boy in a filthy bathroom, traveling shot of poor neighborhood. BW footage of the "Mississippi Burning" murders - the murders of 3 civil rights workers in June 1964. Excerpt from RFK's "Day of Affirmation" speech. "Many nations have set forth their own definitions and declarations of these principles. And there have often been wide and tragic gaps between promise and performance, ideal and reality. Yet the great ideals have constantly recalled us to our own duties. And with painful slowness, we in the United States have extended and enlarged the meaning and the practice of freedom to all of our people."
Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy
DO NOT USE Still burnt out station wagon.
Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy
Men in a pick up truck. Aerial of the crime scene; Coffin being loaded into a hearse. A black woman dressed in mourning. CU newspaper headlines about the sheriff and deputies arrested. Panning shot of the men arrested for conspiracy in the case. Excerpt from RFK's "Day of Affirmation" speech. "For two centuries, my own country has struggled to overcome the self-imposed handicap of prejudice and discrimination based on nationality, on social class or race, discrimination profoundly repugnant to the theory and to the command of our Constitution. Even as my father grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, signs told him that 'No Irish Need Apply.'"
Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy
DO NOT USE Still of African American men holding signs protesting the segregation of swimming pools.
Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy
White man pouring acid into swimming pool while African Americans swim in it. African Americans holding pickets demanding educational improvements. African American men marching with homemade signs. Police officers dragging civil rights marchers away. Civil rights march. Traveling shot of burned out buildings following rioting. "Two generations later, President Kennedy became the first Irish Catholic, and the first Catholic, to head the nation; but how many men of ability had, before 1961, been denied the opportunity to contribute to the nation's progress because they were Catholic, or because they were of Irish extraction? How many sons of Italian or Jewish or Polish parents slumbered in the slums -- untaught, unlearned, their potential lost forever to our nation and to the human race? Even today, what price will we pay before we have assured full opportunity to millions of Negro Americans? In the last five years we have done more to assure equality to our Negro citizens and to help the deprived, both white and black, than in the hundred years before that time. But much, much more remains to be done. For there are millions of Negroes untrained for the simplest of jobs, and thousands every day denied their full and equal rights under the law; and the violence of the disinherited, the insulted and the injured, looms over the streets of Harlem and of Watts and the South side of Chicago."
Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Kennedy answering at question about education and employment at Columbia University, 1964. MS RFK speaking, "Let me just say for instance there is 26 percent of the young Negroes in the City of New York who are out of school and out of work. The Negro child going to many of the schools in Harlem between the third grade and the sixth grade loses 10 points on his I.Q. By the time he gets to the eighth grade, he is already two years behind white students. The drop-out rate amongst Negroes in some of these areas where their schooling is not as good as in white areas, the drop-out rate sometimes goes up to 75 or 80 percent. I think, therefore, we have to have a major effort in the field of education. The education effort must start with children who are three years old and four years old because many of these children come from broken homes. They come from parents who are illiterate. They never hear an intelligent conversation at home. They never have anyone read them a book. So by the time even that they start in first grade, they are cultural deprived. I think that s what we tried to do in Harnew act effort here in the city of New York focusing attention on the fact that these children, even at that young age, need attention and need help. Then if they re bringing homework back at the second or third grade and nobody is there to make them do their homework. Now I ve seen my own children and if you don t make them do their homework, they won t do their homework. If nobody knows how to read in their home, a third to a half of the homes these children come from are broken homes and a high percentage of their one parent that stays with them is illiterate. So they are never going to get any homework done, nobodies going to. So I think we have to set up special efforts to make that there s places for them to study because the housing is insufficient, overcrowded, substandard and I think that we have to have special counselors. And I think we have to make a special effort for reading, to make sure that they continue reading because that s the key. Then I think we also have to do more as far as employment, we have almost 500,000 people who are unemployed here in the state of New York, twice as many percentage wise Negroes are unemployed as whites, some areas in the state of New York it goes up to 3 and 3 times as many. I think, therefore, what we can do as far as bringing new jobs and keeping industry here in the state is going to be terribly important. We re going to have to find here in the city of New York alone, 650,000 new jobs by 1970, we re going to have to find a million jobs in the state of New York by 1970. Where they re going to come from. We re going to have employment for those who are educated and those who are trained but those who are illiterate and uneducated, they re the ones who are going to have difficulty so that s where I think we have to make the effort." (Applause).