- posted on 09/02/2012 09:21:32This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 5:28 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
There are reports the late Robert Kennedy gave a speech to the Voice of America 40 years ago where he was alleged to have said: Things are “moving so fast in race relations a Negro could be president in 40 years.” Kennedy also is alleged to have said in that same broadcast, “Prejudice exists and probably will continue to… `but we have tried to make progress and we are making progress. We are not going to accept the status quo.’”
The Voice of America confirms Robert Kennedy did an address exclusively for VOA on race relations on May 25, 1961. Major news networks like NBC and ABC have already called asking about it. Unfortunately, the tape cannot be located…nor is there a transcript. The chief librarian of the Voice of America says the quotes can also be found in a book called “Excerpts in Rights for Americans: The Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy”. With that said, as America prepares for the November General elections, what do you think of that Kennedy assessment over 40 years later?
Tim Russert dedicated a segment of Meet the Press to Bobby Kennedy’s prophetic words.
July 27th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Interesting! Robert Kennedy sounds like he was a visionary in more ways than one and also a man ahead of his time in his insight.
Many elders have told me almost as long as I can remember that the number 40 is a special number in more ways than one. Also, the number 40 figures largely in the Bible’s writings. Some people even consider 40 a magical, majestical, mystical number.
It is interesting how much we are seeing in America 40 years later; 1968 to 2008. So much happened in 1968 alone, it seems like it has taken 30 to 40 years to get a fresh “view from the bridge” on all that has happened so we can fully understand it and pass it on to our children. Stories are still coming out about 1968 and the years after.
It also seems at times that after something happens on a large scale to a country, (turmoils, wars, assassinations, scandals, a country divided over issues, etc.) it can take 25, to 30, to 40 years for people to even start opening up and talking about it again.
In reference to Robert F. Kennedy’s quote: Things are “moving so fast in race relations a Negro could be president in 40 years.” - that is almost prophetic. It really does look like we are about to get our first African-American President in Senator Barack Obama. And if that happens this year in 2008, exactly 40 years since Kennedy said that, that really is going to be something. Not so much because HE said but more because it was, and is, just time.
On to Robert F. Kennedy’s quote: “Prejudice exists and probably will continue to… `but we have tried to make progress and we are making progress. We are not going to accept the status quo.’”
That shows to me that he was both issuing a heads-up and putting it out there of what was to come to his peers, contemporaries and challengers and that he was also challenging the then current system and letting them know even 40 years ago, that change must and will come. It’s the one thing in life you can always count on - change.
When you take a look at America today from the private industry level, to government, to corporate offices, to politics, you really do see more diversity than 40 years ago. But I think we still have a long way to go on each level to make it truly balanced.
I pray that we see that true balance in our lifetimes.
Overall, I think Robert Kennedy’s assessments were correct!
Peace!
~LT