On February 13 and 14 of 1968 Robert F. Kennedy made a two day trip
to the Kentucky coal region, to see first hand the widespread
poverty in the area, and to hear from the people of eastern
Kentucky of the difficulties they faced in their daily lives. In
two days RFK traveled over two hundred miles of winding mountainous
roads, conversed with numerous families in their homes in a dozen
rural communities and isolated houses in the countryside. He spoke
at Alice Lloyd College and at county courthouses, and he conducted
two official US Senate field hearings.
RFK and party traveled from
Whitesburg to the gym in Fleming-Neon where they conducted a
three and one half hour hearing. Twenty eastern Kentuckians
gave testimony, including Harry Caudill, Judge Wooton of
Leslie County, LKLP director Stafford, miner Cliston Johnson
and David Zegeer of Beth-Elkhorn Coal Company. Evarts High
School student Tommy Duff testified about school conditions,
while other students, some with paper bags over their heads,
protested the proposed flooding of Kingdom Come Creek, which
would have led to the displacement of the community.
Robert F. Kennedy toured eastern Kentucky on February 13 and 14,
1968, landing at Lexington 's Bluegrass Airport and traveling over
two hundred miles in those two days. At the same time, in Vietnam,
the Tet Offensive was still underway - marking a major turning
point in both the war and in attitudes toward it. Less than a month
later, RFK would announce his candidacy for presidency.
Kennedy's purpose in touring
eastern Kentucky was to examine the outcomes of the first wave
of "war on poverty" legislation with the people it most
affected - previous trips of inquiry were made to the San
Joaquin Valley of California, the Mississippi Delta, northern
New Mexico, and the hills of western Pennsylvania.
With Congressman Carl D. Perkins of
Kentucky, an influential congressman responsible for an
important body of adult literacy and technical education
legislation, Kennedy toured eastern Kentucky 's coal country,
the same territory where President Lyndon Johnson had declared
the war on poverty in 1964. Kennedy held field hearings for
the Senate Subcommittee on Employment, Manpower and Poverty in
two locations during the tour, in Vortex and Fleming-Neon,
taking testimony that would be entered into the Congressional
Record. RFK also visited individual homes, schoolhouses, and
county centers during his tour, focusing on the needs of
children and young people, asking questions about what they
had eaten that day, and viewing for himself the effects of
both poverty and the federal efforts to combat it.
The schedule of the tour was
grueling: Kennedy met dozens of people individually, spoke to
thousands, and traveled over rough mountain roads, starting
with a hearing in Vortex at a one room schoolhouse whose
entire student body consisted of the children of one rural
family; on to another one room school in Barwick, where the
teacher, Bonnie Jean Carroll cooked a hot meal for her
students on a pot-bellied stove everyday; on to Hazard, where
he toured the African American neighborhood, Liberty Street;
to a strip mining site where he viewed for himself the
physical destruction produced by surface mining; and ended day
one at Alice Lloyd College near Congressman Perkins' hometown
of Hindman.
February 14th started with a drive to Whitesburg and an early
morning speech on the Letcher County Courthouse steps; followed by
a formal hearing at the Fleming-Neon High School gym; visits with
families in Hemphill and Haymond, a speech at the Fiscal Court and
Library in Prestonsburg, and ends with Kennedy being flown off in
the governor's plane to attend a dinner in his honor at the home of
the Binghams in Louisville, then owners and publishers of the
influential Courier-Journal. During the dinner of filet mignon,
Kennedy was unable to stop himself from noting the disparity of
experience.
Kennedy's tour of the region was
not a unique event: his brother John had planned to come in
December of 1963, Johnson came in 1964 and, in later years,
Nixon, Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Paul Wellstone, and Jesse
Jackson all conducted "poverty tours" that included eastern
Kentucky. Of these, the people of the region remember RFK's as
the most meaningful, his person the most understanding and
best listener. People often cite his large family, his warmth,
and his genuine concern when they talk about his effect on
them, and speak of the way he brought hope, hope that was
dispelled a few months later, with his assassination in June
of 1968.
"It is a revolutionary world we live in. Governments repress
their people; and millions are trapped in poverty while the nation
grows rich; and wealth is lavished on armaments." RFK
"For the fortunate among us, there is the temptation to follow
the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial
success so grandly spread before those who enjoy the privilege of
education. But that is not the road history has marked for us."
RFK
"The future does not belong to those who are content with today,
apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike. Rather
it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in
a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of
American society." RFK
Although the Gynasium in which
this hearing was held with Robert F. Kennedy is no longer
standing, you can visit the location which is now the campus
of the Fleming-Neon Elementary School.
The cache is in a Mini Park and Walking Track newly placed in
the town a year or two ago. There are picnic tables and some
playground equipment for the kids. There are benches along the
walking track for you to have a seat and rest after walking.
You are looking for a 35mm Film Canister, please place it back
the way you found it!
Happy Caching!!!!!!!!!