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ROBERT KENNEDY'S OTHER LEGACY - ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND INNOVATION
Kerry Kennedy and Sam Beard
JUNE 2008 (IPS) - People don't remember Senator Robert F. Kennedy's legacy in economic
development, but they should, write Kerry Kennedy, his daughter, founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Centre for Human Rights, and Sam Beard, founder of the nonprofit National Development Council and former RFK staff member.
On this 40th anniversary of RFK's 1968 presidential campaign, during
the height of the civil rights movement, Robert Kennedy devoted
himself to protecting civil liberties, but he realised that the quest
for justice could not be conceived only in the narrow legal sense but
would need to include political, social, and economic justice as well
- and incorporate the housing, education, health care, food, and
employment needs of those it sought to serve.
In the 1960s, the senator established principles that were new and
unheard of. Long before others, he saw that small businesses, not
Fortune 500 companies, were the major job creators. He insisted on
involving banks and financial institutions when most low-income
families viewed them as usurers, and he sought creative ways to
rewrite federal tools. RFK wanted to multiply minority-owned
businesses. In 1966, New York City banks combined did not lend even one million dollars to black and Hispanic businesses. The senator was passionate about economic justice in inner cities and rural areas. He felt strongly that the promises and benefits of our economic system should
be open to all Americans. Against the advice of the cautious, in
Bedford-Stuyvesant, a poverty-stricken section of Brooklyn, New York,
he joined hands with Republican senator Jacob Javits and launched a
comprehensive revitalisation project.
/NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA, NEW ZEALAND, CZECH
REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, UNITED STATES, OR UNITED KINGDOM/ (END/2008)
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