On June 6th, 1966, two years to the day before his death, Senator Robert F. Kennedy addressed a group of South African students on the occasion of their annual "Day of Reaffirmation of Academic and Human Freedom." The speech he gave shook the foundations of apartheid in that country and reaffirmed the power of the individual to change the world:
“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
On this Memorial Day, we remember Robert Kennedy and three other giants of American progress, individual citizens who lost their lives because of their "diverse acts of courage" and their willingness to challenge the status quo at home and around the world.
President John F. Kennedy, assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
Malcolm X, assassinated on February 21, 1965, in New York City, New York.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated June 6, 1968, in Los Angeles, California.
These four men defined the promise of the 1960s, and their loss deformed the course of human history. The example of their courage compels us, in these ever-darkening times, to send forth our own "ripple of hope" for human freedom, and to do so even in the face of our own discomfort or destruction, even in the face of our own despair.
Today, we remember the importance of their lives and fight for the truth about their deaths. Join us and help spread the word: https://www.americantruthnow.org/sign
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