SPEAK UP, SPEAK OUT
The RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights and New York State United Teachers has developed a set of award winning lesson plans and resource materials designed to help instill in students the concept of social justice and the principles of a just society that are the cornerstones of Robert F. Kennedy's legacy.
Created in collaboration with the Office of New York State Gov. David Paterson and the New York State Education Department, "Speak Up, Speak Out: Robert F. Kennedy, Champion of Social Justice" draws on Sen. Kennedy's mission and vision to help students grasp the principles and philosophy of social justice.
Individual unit lessons have been created for grades 4, 8 and 11. The materials have been developed by educators with input from primary sources who were close associates of Robert Kennedy. The lessons are consistent with New York state standards and are designed to achieve them through study about the life of one of our nation's heroes.
Click here to learn more about the lesson plan and to download teaching materials.
Click here to read about the recent awards for "Speak Up, Speak Out."
Below is a letter to educators from Kerry Kennedy about "Speak Up, Speak Out."
Dear Educators:
How do you measure someone's legacy? How does a legacy exist long after a historical figure has passed on? Over the years, I've heard thousands of people tell stories about how they were touched by my father, Robert F. Kennedy.
I met a man from the Oglala Sioux Tribe at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota who told me about Robert Kennedy visiting his school and asking the librarian why there weren't any books on Indian history, culture and language.
I met a grape picker at a worker camp in Delano, Calif., founded by labor leader Cesar Chavez, who told me about watching Robert Kennedy break bread with Chavez to end a fast. He said, "We felt alone and abandoned until Bobby Kennedy took up our cause." After Robert Kennedy supported the pickers in their boycott of California grapes, conditions improved.
I met a journalist in New York who described following Robert Kennedy to the Mississippi Delta. Shocked by the misery and starvation, he was deeply moved by a politician who sought to expose the difficulties we face as a society.
When I was living in Washington, I heard congressmen, senators and the president of the United States speak about how their political careers had been inspired by my father.
Such different stories, and no single message of what Robert Kennedy's legacy is. The lesson plans in this guide, developed in a partnership between New York State United Teachers and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, focus on his passionate commitment to social justice. That passion and commitment inspired millions. Take a look at the images of his 1968 campaign for the U.S. presidency of people reaching up, eager to touch him. I remember when he came home from those campaign stops, his hands would be bright red and so swollen he couldn't grasp a glass, because of all those hands reaching out.
They loved him. They loved him not only because of his policies or because he spoke eloquently, but really because he touched something deep in the soul of his audiences. What he touched was the nobility in each person. He spoke to the best in us, the part that believes in change, in possibility, in the capacity to overcome even the most enduring and difficult problems we face as a society.
He said, "We can ensure the vote to every American," despite the abuses faced by African-Americans seeking to exercise their rights as citizens. His commitment to voting rights meant that, for the first time in our history, the United States became a true democracy, one where every citizen had a vote that counted.
He said, "We can stop a war," despite a president's support of it. And there was eventually peace in Vietnam.
He said, "We can rebuild our cities despite poverty, gangs and violence." And he brought together neighborhood leaders with large companies and the power of the government to work together to transform some of the most devastated parts of our country.
These were all apparently insurmountable problems, but he believed in the ability of an individual to make a difference.
There was no group of Americans who Robert Kennedy admired more or held in higher esteem than those who were willing to risk their lives for basic civil rights. And, as our nation's lead prosecutor facing organized crime, Robert Kennedy was determined to use the law to bring criminals who threatened our country to justice.
But that eagerness was always tempered by his commitment to protect civil rights and civil liberties, even when it meant letting the accused sometimes go free. As attorney general at the height of the civil rights movement, Robert Kennedy was keenly aware of the capacity for overzealous or corrupt law enforcement officials to abuse the awesome power of the law. He upheld that conviction on his travels around the world and criticized governments which invoked national security to suspend civil liberties.
Opposing undue attacks on civil liberties is central to the ongoing legacy of Robert Kennedy. Today, organizations like the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial bring the power of the international legal rights to bear on governments that fail to comport with rights enumerated under the International Declaration of Human Rights and other covenants.
Just as the American civil rights movement gave birth to tremendous heroes, like Martin Luther King, today we are blessed by people of tremendous courage and noble spirit who have sacrificed themselves for human rights the world over - people like Nelson Mandela, Elie Wiesel, the Dalai Lama and lesser-known but equally relevant people like Lucas Benitez, who represents the migrant farmworkers in Florida.
They personify Robert Kennedy's faith in the noble spirit and firm belief in the ability of the individual to overcome apparently insurmountable problems. Each has faced giant forces with little more than the slingshot of their heart and nerve and sinew. Each has suffered the consequences of their challenge. They do so by supporting courageous individuals who are making democratic change.
We don't laud them because they've been targeted for repression, but because, in the face of the most brutal repression and with full knowledge of the consequences, they have stood their ground in the fight for justice and human rights.
I asked Abubacar Sultan, who works with child soldiers in Africa, why he continued to risk his life for total strangers, and this is what he said: "It is something strong within yourself. You feel you are a human being and there are other human beings there suffering. You are better off, so you need to sacrifice. It's hard to explain. It's perhaps a kind of a gift that you have inside yourself."
People like Abubacar and so many others walk where Robert Kennedy walked. They show us; they help us find the way.
As teachers share the lessons in this guide, students across New York state will be inspired to recognize that gift of courage in themselves. Robert F. Kennedy's legacy lives on in countless individuals who fight for justice around the world - and in every child who is inspired by his legacy to "speak up, speak out."
Kerry Kennedy
Founder, RFK Center for Human Rights and Speak Truth to Power
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