Q and A with Columbia University Students
Q and A with Columbia University Students
Q&A with Columbia University Students (1966) (1988 - Tape Two) 02.01.08 Young mans asks "Many of us have been wondering whether or not you are going ever issue a concise statement on your position in regards to the McCarthy Hearings, and the perjures of Senator Joseph McCarthy, would you be willing to offer a statement now?" Robert F. Kennedy responds "I went to work in 1953 for the committee that was headed by Senator McCarthy, there was a democratic council for that committee. Mr. Flannigan was kept over from the previous committee, headed by the democrats, he hired me, I went to work for him. I was not involved in any of the communist hearings of Senator McCarthy during that period of time which I worked for the committee, I worked for the committee for approximately six months. I disagreed with what was happening on the committee, which I did not have any personal involvement, other things that they were doing I was a member of the staff. I reached the conclusion that I didn t want to have anything to do with it, so I went to Senator McCarthy and I said that I disagreed with what they were doing and I wasn't going to stay with the committee any longer, and I left in June of 1953." Kennedy continues saying that he went then with the Hoover Commission. 02.02.57 Young woman asks Mr. Robert Kennedy "Since you haven't lived in New York State recently, do you feel that you understand the states problems today? "I think that the fact that I've been involved in all of these matters, the effort that was made in Harlem dealing with young people were set up by me by the committee on juvenile delinquency." Continues "The great problem I would think in the great state of New York now is to make sure that people of different races and colors can live together. There has been nobody that has been in the center of that than I have over the period of the last three and a half years." 02.04.52 Young man asks "Sir, you've mentioned the question of housing and on this specific issue it's well known that the problems of New York city are perhaps larger than any other area. What specifically would you do which hasn't been done before to bring better housing programs to the city of New York and to the entire state of New York?" Robert Kennedy responds that he would expand the public housing programs, as well as middle income housing, make an effort for urban renewal, rehabilitate establishments rather than just knocking them down, and providing housing for people over 65 (senior citizens)." 02.06.56 Robert Kennedy says "Let me just say that I run for the United States Senate because I think it's such an important position and because I want to play a role. .......I've seen in the last three and a half years what a difference an individual can make." RFK continues "President Kennedy's favorite quote was really from Dante "the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality", so if all of us whether it's in the field of civil rights, or housing or whether it's in Vietnam or whatever it is, just hang back and say this is the problem of somebody else. If we're going to permit what's going on in Harlem now, of those of young children who grow up uneducated and untrained, and dissatisfied with life and dissatisfied with their future and feeling that there is nothing in this system, then we are going to be in difficulty, the whole system is going to be in difficulty. These I think are our responsibilities, these are your responsibilities just as they are mine. I hope I win as a United States Senator, but even if I don't I think that for all of us that we have an obligation, we have a responsibility, if we don't do it then no one's going to do it. And if educated people don't do it, then no one's going to do it. The people who are going to make the difference for this country and for the world are educated people, and we have a special not only responsibility, but a special opportunity to make a difference in the world and make a difference in the country. ....I think we can make a difference."