JOHANNESBURG – In 1966, Robert F. Kennedy travelled to apartheid South Africa and spoke about equality and the rule of law in speeches that were informed by the civil rights struggle roiling the United States at the time. This week, two-dozen members of his family as well as a U.S. congressional delegation are in democratic South Africa to mark the 50th anniversary of that visit.
Kennedy was a U.S. senator when South African students invited him to speak at the University of Cape Town in a country where white minority rule was entrenched. On his trip, Kennedy visited Albert Luthuli, the anti-apartheid leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960.
Kennedy’s daughter, Kerry, heads a human rights group and will also speak at the University of Cape Town this week.