Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925-June 6, 1968) was the U.S. Attorney General 1961-64, during the presidency of his brother, John F. Kennedy, and a U.S. Senator from New York, 1965-68.
He was assassinated in 1968 while campaigning for the Presidency.
In August of 1965, in a speech to the graduating class of the International Police Academy in Washington, Robert F. Kennedy stated:
<Education is always vital-not just for the cities, not even only for children, but for every peasant who can learn to read, or drive a tractor, or even use a hoe instead of a forked stick. For what we must build, after all, is a nation-a nation in which, as in the Scriptures, "Your only men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions."
And where there is no vision, life shall perish from the earth....
I think you will meet that obligation-that you will have the fortitude and wisdom and patience to "bear the burden," as President Kennedy said, of the "long twilight struggle, year in and year out, 'rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation'"-and I am proud, as much as I can, to share that burden with you.> 1925RK001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
1925RK001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Robert Francis Kennedy, August of 1965, in a speech to the graduating class of the International Police Academy in Washington. Vital Speeches of the Day (New York, 1934 et seq., published twice a month), August 15, 1965. The Annals of America 20 Vols. (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1976), Vol. 18, pp. 323-327.