ROBERT F. KENNEDY

SUMMARY: This offering is a program signed by RFK in 1966 when he gave a historic speech to students in South Africa about racial and educational equality. Price:$1395.00

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Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968 ). At the time Senator RFK went to South Africa in 1966 the white liberal students and faculty at Cape Town University were agitating for the anti-apartheid cause and were very discouraged at the lack of progress. However, according to all accounts the Kennedy speech ("A Tiny Ripple of Hope") which is still refrerred to as a momentous event locally gave the all white student body and faculty renewed hope that they could change their country and society for the better. What follows is a summary of the events in Jameson Hall in 1966 that just appeared in print in 2006:

Jameson Hall has witnessed many momentous events over the years. One of the most important occurred 40 years ago this week. In 1966 apartheid was at its height, and liberals in despair. On June 6 the Jameson Hall was packed and a vast crowd outside waited for the 40-year old Democratic Senator for New York, Robert F Kennedy, to deliver the National Union of South African Students' annual Day of Affirmation speech.

The former US Attorney General began in a thin, wavering voice to compare the United States and South Africa. His voice gathered strength as he went on to say: "We must recognise the full human equality of all our people- before God, before the law, and in the councils of government. We must do this, not because it is economically advantageous - although it is; not because the laws of God and man command it - although they do command it; not because people in other lands wish it so. We must do it for the single and fundamental reason that it is the right thing to do."

He then exhorted his largely student audience to reject the idea that they could do nothing about the world's problems. "It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped," he said. "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 centres of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

His UCT speech is recognised by scholars of Kennedy as the finest he ever delivered. It included sentences that his brother was to quote at his funeral and that are inscribed on the walls of the John F Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.

In 1966 he helped remind those involved in anti-apartheid work that they were part of a noble tradition, that must in the end triumph. Kennedy himself was assassinated exactly two years later, on 6 June 1968. Had he been elected President later that year, and not Nixon, US policy to apartheid South Africa would have been very different.

Approximately two weeks before the South African Speech RFK had given a similar speech at The University of Mississipi and he planned to use that speech as a basis for the one he was to give in Jameson Hall. Interestingly, RFK sought input from prominent white South Africans on how to adapt his Mississipi speech to a South African audience WHICH HE APPARENTLY DID WITH GREAT SUCCESS.In 1966 Cape Town University was all white and today it is 80% black.Students come to the university from all over Africa to the extent that the locals now feel that foreign students are displacing local South Africans. And the beat goes on!!!

The program measures approximately 6 in.x 9 in. and is complete in every respect. It shows normal aging and there are file holes to the left as shown in the above image. The fountain pen signature is bold.The program will be sold with an 8 in x 10 in B&W image of RFK at a podium.

Many of the RFK signatures being sold today are autopens but this program was signed in South Africa and Senator Kennedy was not packing an autopen.The program is being offered with a 8 in. x 10 in. B&W photograph of RFK as shown below.

As with all items sod by THE HISTORY BUFF, INC. the photograph will come with a certified opinion of authenticity and a money back guarantee if it is not as represented on our web site.

Price: $1395.00