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[[image - b/w full page photo of Robert F. Kennedy riding in an open-top car, shaking hands with a crowd of people surrounding the car]]

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Robert F. Kennedy is one national leader who has never been afraid to speak out on civil rights. He understands the problem and he has always championed the Negro's fight for equality. Speaking recently he said, "If any man claims the Negro should be content or satisfied, let him say he would willingly change the color of his skin and go to live in the negro section of a large city." For many years Kennedy has shown his dedication to the Negro cause not just with words, but with actions.

As Attorney General from 1961 until 1964 Kennedy labored to put the total efforts of the Federal Government behind freedom for Negroes. He won new regulations banning segregation in bus terminals and on interstate buses. He spurred the activity of the Department of Justice in prosecuting voting rights and school desegregation cases. Kennedy personally argued before the Supreme Court the first case in which the principle of one man, one vote was implemented. And also as Attorney General, Kennedy helped draft the far-reaching 1964 Civil Rights Act which banned discrimination in places of public accommodation, required full equality in employment, and denied federal funds to state agencies that practice discrimination.

As United States Senator from New York, Kennedy continued his intense dedication to civil rights. He fought for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protected the right to vote. He voted for an amendment to abolish the poll tax in state elections. He protected the one man, one vote principle against constitutional amendments that would have destroyed its original intention. And most recently, Senator Kennedy played a major role in the debate and passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

In New York's Bedford-Stuyvesant section, our nation's most populous black community, Senator Kennedy inspired and helped organize the most important Negro self-help program in America. Community residents work out their own program for jobs, housing rehabilitation, and educational advancement with financial help furnished by the Federal Government and private enterprise. Newsweek magazine calls it, "the most sweeping and comprehensive rehabilitation effort ever brought to bear on a single American community."

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