Life of public service continues to reverberate through the generations
The John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum plans to commemorate the life and legacy of Robert F. Kennedy as it reopens for the 2021 season on Saturday, April 17.
“The theme ‘Ripple of Hope’ comes from his most famous and powerful speech, delivered in Cape Town, South Africa,” said the exhibit curator, Rebecca Pierce-Merrick. “It’s a fitting title for our exhibit as well, because that’s exactly what his life of public service created – a ripple of hope that continues to reverberate through the generations since his passing.”
The exhibit begins with Robert Kennedy’s early years within the Kennedy family, including rarely seen images of his time on Cape Cod.
However, its focal point covers his time serving as the U.S. Attorney General, his election to the U.S. Senate, and culminating with his inspirational presidential campaign, which began on March 16, 1968 and ended with his death on June 6, 1968.
One particularly poignant part of the exhibit highlights an impromptu speech he gave before a large group of distraught onlookers the night Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in April 1968, just weeks after Kennedy announced his bid for the presidency.
The exhibit includes 45 images and excerpts from Robert Kennedy’s speeches that convey the boundless energy he showed on the campaign trail, often with Ethel and his children at his side, Pierce-Merrick said.
“Ripple of Hope” also has very moving, eight-minute video narrated by Kathleen Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy III.
Tickets should be purchased online at www.jfkhyannismuseum.org for specific time of visit, as limits are in place for daily admissions for health and safety of museum guests.
The museum will be open daily during April school vacation, and, thereafter, each Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. until Memorial Day, when the museum’s summer hours kick in.
The “RFK: Ripple of Hope” exhibit is being assembled in collaboration with the RFK Human Rights Foundation in New York and will remain on display through 2022.