Robert F. Kennedy: Day of Affirmation Address at the University of Cape Town

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Robert Kennedy traveled widely across the world. He easily made comparisons between the United States and other countries, not to offer contrasts that would presumably demonstrate the superiority of the United States but to detect and highlight common ground and common concerns. He was one of the first major American politicians to recognize the challenges of the developing world, and he was not always comfortable with the way the United States flexed its muscle in developing countries. In 1965 Kennedy protested President Johnson's decision to intervene with military force in the Dominican Republic; he drew a parallel with the escalation of the American presence in Vietnam, suggesting that he was perhaps now questioning cold war assumptions about the spread of Communism.

In keeping with his concerns with the developing world, Kennedy was among the first American political leaders to take a serious interest in Africa. In June 1966 he paid a visit to South Africa, in large part because he saw parallels between the experiences of the United States and that country regarding race relations. Indeed, South African college students had been inspired by the achievements of the American civil rights movement to take steps against apartheid in their homeland. South Africa's government looked dimly upon Kennedy's visit, blocking members of the media from accompanying him and his wife, declining to meet with him, and finally “banning” the head of the student organization from attending the event at which he spoke. None of that mattered to Kennedy, who met instead with opposition leaders (including the president of the student organization). On June 6 he gave the keynote address during the “Day of Affirmation” ceremonies at the University of Cape Town.

Kennedy notes in his address that the United States and South Africa have much in common, with those commonalities including a troubled history with respect to race relations. As much as Americans could take pride in recent changes, Kennedy reminds the audience that his own country had a long way to go to meet the promise of its rhetoric of equality. He enumerates several tenets of fundamental importance, including freedom of speech, the accountability of government, and limits on the degree to which government could interfere with basic human rights and freedoms. Such populist notions distinguish democracies from Communist nations, and yet the absence of Communism does not ensure democracy, for regimes of other natures seek to control their populations in ways contrary to democratic principles.

Kennedy asks, then, how freedom can be achieved for those burdened by oppression of any kind. Above all, he argues, people must be willing to honor the principle of human equality and value everyone. Progress toward ideals might well be slow, he admits, and the example provided by the United States might not be suitable to political situations elsewhere in the world. So long as various nations sought to establish the ideals of human freedom, liberty, and equality, they might choose paths suitable to their circumstances and heritage. For the achievement of change, Kennedy looks to the young and to an attitude of youthfulness—“not a time of life but a state of mind.” In urging change, Kennedy warns against the beliefs that nothing can be done by any single person, that it may be better to deal with things as they are than to seek to alter them to what we want them to be, that fear might justly deter one from acting, and that the desire for comfort and ease might legitimize the following of a more mundane path.

This speech, which Senator Edward Kennedy quoted in his moving eulogy of his brother, reveals several of Robert Kennedy's traits in public address. He liked to offer arguments in a fairly straightforward, logical fashion, listing his main points. Again, he loved to quote from the classics and other renowned works, not in efforts to talk down to his audience but in attempts to draw them up and interact with them on an intellectual as well as an emotional basis. Finally, he was prone after November 22, 1963, to inject passages from his older brother's speeches, as if to offer assurance that he was still keeping the faith and following in his brother's footsteps.

Kennedy's visit to South Africa drew much attention there as well as in the United States. He gave several more speeches, incorporating remarks about the shooting of James Meredith in Mississippi to remind people that in critical ways the United States and South Africa shared common problems with respect to race. Over the course of his sojourn, when he spoke about race, it was now with a greater appreciation for the injuries racism could inflict and a greater passion about what needed to be done to overcome it.