Civil Rights
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Kerry Kennedy Named 2023 Freedom Award Recipient
Tags Share Memphis Magazine features our president Kerry Kennedy as one of the 2023 Freedom Award recipients from the National Civil Rights Museum.
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Mike Brown v. United States: Seeking justice for lethal police violence
This case seeks justice for the extrajudicial killing of Mike Brown and violations of the human rights of Mike and his mother Lezley McSpadden under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.
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Rekia Boyd v. United States: Fighting impunity for police killings
This case seeks accountability through international human rights law for the extrajudicial killing of Rekia Boyd by a Chicago police officer.
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‘They are aligned and joined forever’: A Harvard Club conversation on the legacies of Martin Luther King Jr. and RFK
Tags Share Sit-ins at Woolworths in the south. The murders of Tyre Nichols, George Floyd and others. How does the past inform the way we approach civil rights today? Kerry Kennedy, president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and Dr. Russell Wigginton, president of the National Civil Rights Museum, took on these topics and more…
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Non-violent activism and community organizing
Tags Share Remarks made at 2001 JFK profile in Courage Award ceremony, Boston, MA We wanted to test a Supreme Court ruling that banned segregation in an interstate travel facility. When the bus arrived in Rock Hill, South Carolina, I deboarded the bus and approached the white waiting room. We were being watched and someone…
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Young human rights defenders carry on John Lewis’ lasting legacy
Tags Share For myself, and for many members of the Kennedy family, John Lewis was a continual and steady presence in our lives. He was a father figure to us, he shared a special bond with my mother, Ethel, and he was a guiding force in helping Robert F Kennedy Human Rights become the organization…
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Good Trouble: What John Lewis’ life and legacy means for young leaders
Tags Share For myself, and for many, many members of the Kennedy family, John Lewis was a continual and steady presence in our lives. He was a father figure to us, he shared a special bond with my mother, Ethel, and he was a guiding force in helping Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights become the…
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Statement by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights President Kerry Kennedy on the passing of Bill Russell
Tags Share A Hall of Famer who led the Boston Celtics to 11 NBA Championships. The first Black head coach in an American sports league. But Bill Russell was so much more than that. Russell, who died Sunday at age 88, was not only a basketball legend but a towering figure in the civil rights…
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Day Of Affirmation Address
Tags Share In 1966, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy showed solidarity with student anti-Apartheid activists and leaders at the University of Cape Town in one of his most celebrated speeches. His Day of Affirmation address—also known as the ‘Ripple of Hope’ speech—resonates with the same urgency today as it did nearly 60 years ago. The speech…
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On the Death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tags Share I have bad news for you, for all our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight. Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings and he died because of…
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Televised Press Conference
Tags Share In the last five or six years, the white people have looked at the black people and said, “Look at all we have done. We passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We passed the [Voting] Rights Act of 1965.” “A Negro has been appointed to the Supreme Court. A Negro has been…
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Reflections on the 1965 Watts Riots: State Convention, Independent Order of Odd Fellows
Tags Share I want to speak to you tonight about some of the events of the last week: about the dead and the orphans of the rioting in Los Angeles; about the sick and the distressed of all our urban ghettos; about the hatred and the fear and the brutality we saw in Los angeles;…
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