Civil Rights
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Blair LM Kelley traces the history of the Black working class
Tags Share On Tuesday, July 23rd, RFK Human Rights hosted its July Book Club featuring the recipient of the 2024 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Book Award, Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class by Blair LM Kelley and moderated by historian and author Ted Widmer. This work spans two hundred years―from one…
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International Human Rights Commission to Hold Public Hearing on Michael Brown’s Case
Tags Share Ten years after Brown’s murder by Ferguson police, his family has one last avenue for justice Washington, D.C., July 8, 2024 – On July 10, almost ten years after Michael Brown’s murder at the hands of Ferguson police, the Brown family will appear before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for a…
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Introducing the Harry Belafonte Memorial Project
Tags Share Upon hearing of the death of Harry Belafonte, we understood the necessity of memorializing Harry beyond his fame and examining him as the man he was. Our three interviewees, Gina Belafonte, Maria Belafonte, and David Goodman, were each able to speak to a more intimate side of Harry, having known him mostly in…
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Address to the Civil Rights Committee of New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, New York City
The people’s vote is the people’s voice and when some people cannot vote they cannot effectively speak against injustice and deprivation of other rights.
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Speech at the Law Day Exercises of the University of Georgia Law School, Athens, Georgia
We often scoff at the figures cited by the Communist countries showing that 96 or 99 percent of their citizens participate in elections. But what must our attitude be, in a democracy, toward registration figures showing that far less than a majority of the citizens in some states are even eligible to vote?
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Speech at the Opening of Exhibit on the Emancipation Proclamation at The National Archives in Washington, D.C.
In this generation we have seen an extraordinary change in America—a new surge of idealism in our life—a new and profound reality in our democratic order. Much has been done. But much more must be done, first because it is right, and because in making equal opportunity a reality for all Americans, we make it…
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Address at the Annual Convention of the Theater Owners of America, New York City
The most any law can do is point the way—the rest is up to the people. Civil Rights is not an issue that can be solved by governmental edict—it must be dealt with at the community level, within states, within cities, within neighborhoods—wherever a meeting takes place between persons of light and dark skin.
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Speech at University of Alabama
Negroes must be as free as other Americans —free to vote and to learn and to earn their way, and to share in the decisions of government would shape their lives. We know that to accomplish this end will mean great tension and difficulty and strife for all of u
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Address at the Annual Luncheon of the Associated Press, New York City
It is virtually impossible for even the most alert administration to be fully aware of all the corruption or laxity that can creep into our government. But an alert press can make a major difference not only in eliminating wasteful or corrupt practices, but in ensuring that justice prevails.
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Address at the Day of Affirmation at the University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
We in the United States believe in the protection of minorities; we recognize the contributions they can make and the leadership they can provide; and we do not believe that any people—whether minority, majority, or individual human beings—are “expendable” in the cause of theory or policy. We recognize also that justice between men and nations…
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Television interview in the WTTG studios of the Metromedia Television Network
I think that we are also seeing a resurgence of extremism in the Northern communities. When we start to move in these areas, civil rights make some people uncomfortable, because things are not the same as they have always been.
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Address at the American Jewish Congress, New York City
It is the ideal of freedom which underlies our great concern for civil rights. Nations around the world look to us for leadership not merely by strength of arms but by the strength of our convictions. We not only want, but we need, the free exercise of rights by every American. We need the strength…
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