The Robert F. Kennedy Book Award was founded in 1980 with the proceeds from Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.’s bestselling biography, Robert Kennedy and His Times. Each year, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights presents an award to the book that, as Schlesinger said, "most faithfully and forcefully reflects Robert Kennedy’s purposes – his concern for the poor and the powerless, his struggle for honest and even-handed justice, his conviction that a decent society must assure all young people a fair chance, and his faith that a free democracy can act to remedy disparities of power and opportunity."

Founded by the reporters who covered Robert F. Kennedy's historic 1968 presidential campaign, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards honor outstanding reporting on issues that reflect Robert Kennedy's concerns, including human rights, social justice, and the power of individual action in the United States and around the world. Entries should provide insights into the causes, conditions, and remedies of human rights violations and injustice, and critical analysis of relevant policies, programs, individual actions, and private endeavors that foster positive change. The Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards are among the few in which winners are determined by their peers. Entries should provide insights into the causes, conditions, and remedies of human rights violations and injustice, and critical analysis of relevant policies, programs, individual actions, and private endeavors that foster positive change.

We are grateful to the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Family Foundation for their support of this year’s exciting Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards ceremony.