BOBBY  KENNEDY

"We all struggle to transcend the cruelties and the follies of mankind.  That struggle will not be won by standing aloof and pointing a finger; it will be won by action, by men and women who commit their every resource of mind and body to the education and improvement and help of their fellow man." - Robert F. Kennedy Sr.

"This is Armageddon; it's the final battle. It's a battle that pits the forces of ignorance and greed against our children and the vast majority of human beings who want dignified, enriching, sustainable communities. Riverkeepers are the front line soldiers in the battle to secure our children's futures. We elbow our way into the courtrooms and into those back hallways of capital hill, where the big shots are divvying up the public trust, and we say: 'We demand an accounting. We want to know what you are doing with the things that don't belong to you- with the things that belong to our children." - Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"We didn't inherit this land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children" - Lakota Sioux Proverb

    Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has spent several years living in Alabama.  In 1976 he came to Alabama; by this time Kennedy had decided to dedicate his life to Civil Rights, picking up the flag where his father had planted it.  At Harvard University, R.F.K. Jr., decided to write his senior thesis on Alabama politics and the Civil Rights Movement.  Once in Alabama, Kennedy met many prominent and notorious individuals.  However, Bobby Kennedy, Jr. and Judge Frank Johnson quickly became close friends, a relationship that grew out of a mutual love of justice and fishing.  Judge Johnson was a federal judge who spent most of his career fighting the racist, segregationist policies of Governor George Wallace.  Judge Johnson and Governor Wallace were actually roommates during their freshman year at the University of Alabama.  Following their collegiate education in Tuscaloosa, the two became sworn enemies during their important careers.  George Wallace later declared that Judge Johnson was an: "integratin', carpetbaggin', scallywaggin', bald-faced, lying federal judge ... who deserved a barbed-wire enema."  In the end, good prevailed over evil with the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (c. 1977)

"They see us spend billions on armaments while poverty and ignorance continue at home; they see us willing to fight a war for freedom in Vietnam, but unwilling to fight with one-hundredth the money or force or effort to secure freedom in Mississippi or Alabama or the ghettos of the North." 

(Robert F. Kennedy, Sr.)

    By this time R.F.K., Jr. had decided to turn his Harvard senior thesis on Alabama politics into a novel of Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr.  Kennedy later reported: "I found out that it was basically Frank M. Johnson who was running the state of Alabama.   I realized after doing preliminary research that Johnson was the real subject and the more influential and exciting personality." (Kennedy, 1980)    He continued to live between Birmingham and Montgomery throughout 1979.  In 1978, Bobby Kennedy, Jr., published Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., the first of several biographies of this legendary Alabamian.  In December 1978, David Whiteside, co-founder of Black Warrior Riverkeeper, was born; Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. became his Godfather.  Judge Frank Johnson is Whiteside's great uncle.  David Whiteside's relationship with Robert Kennedy, Jr. helped make the creation of the Black Warrior Riverkeeper program possible.  In late 1979, Ted Kennedy announced his run for the presidency, Bobby Kennedy, Jr. would campaign for his uncle in Alabama.

Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. enjoys a fine day

on a reservoir of the Black Warrior River

Westchester County, New York - 1987   Kennedy & Whiteside     1997 - British Columbia

    After Alabama, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. began to realize that America's injustices were still omnipresent in the environment.  America's less affluent population lived in dangerous areas with more polluted air, toxic water and land fills and new factories constantly sprung up in these economically depressed communities.  In January 1984, Kennedy took a volunteer job for the National Resources Defense Council (N.R.D.C.)  N.R.D.C. had served as legal counsel for the Hudson Riverkeeper since 1970.  By the end of 1984, Hudson Riverkeeper hired Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as their chief prosecuting attorney.  In 1992, Kennedy and the Riverkeepers started the National Alliance of River, Sound and Baykeepers.  In 1998, the Riverkeepers changed the name of this umbrella organization to the Waterkeeper Alliance.  Today, the Waterkeeper Alliance is one of the fastest growing environmental movements in the country, with around 100 "Waterkeeper" programs across the world.

Robert F. Kennedy III, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and David Whiteside

Hyannisport, Massachusetts, SUMMER 2003

"Our gross national product now is over eight hundred billion dollars a year, but that GNP--if we should judge America by that--counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.  It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl.  It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets.  It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play.  It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.  It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom or our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.  And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.

(Robert F. Kennedy, Sr.)

                      Bobby Kennedy Sr., with "Little Bobby."                   Bobby Kennedy Jr., fishing in B.C.

Bobby Kennedy Jr. and Lauren Whiteside

University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama ~ June 2003