Calling the University of San Francisco’s Street Law program the “best memorial” to his father, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke at at the School of Law Mar. 1 as part of the program’s 25th anniversary.
“Democracy would not work without a foundation of justice because people must feel that they have a stake in this society and that they are treated fairly,” Kennedy said. “That’s what this Street Law program is about.”
Founded 25 years ago by Law Professor Tom Nazario, at the time a Fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based Robert F. Kennedy Memorial organization, the Street Law program sends law students to high schools around the Bay Area to teach students about the fundamentals of law and the justice system. Since its inception, the program has taught approximately 60,000 students at 54 schools.
“We are very much committed to justice in regards to making people aware of their rights, in educating people to be responsible about the law,” Nazario said.
Kennedy, Jr.’s visit came 34 years after his father, then Senator Robert Kennedy, visited USF during a presidential campaign stop in San Francisco. Two months later, on the eve of his 1968 victory in the California primary, Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
Although the former Attorney General is remembered as fondly as his brother, President John F. Kennedy, there were no memorials to Robert until last year when President George W. Bush named the Justice Department building in Washington, D.C. the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building.
“It’s never bothered my family that there is no brick and mortar memorial to my father,” Kennedy, Jr. said at USF. “I want to thank you for participating in and creating what I believe is the best memorial to Robert Kennedy.”
