Noting that the 'tentacles of economic injustice are long,' Kennedy said that 'today, even 22 years after the apartheid system was dismantled, the economic oppression of one of the most cruel systems of mass disempowerment continues in full swing.' Other speakers included Graca Machel, widow of Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, and Patrick Gaspard, U.S. 'We have a moral obligation to speak up' against injustice, Lewis said. had been assassinated and that Kennedy had inspired people to be brave and bold. 'I knew and truly loved Robert Kennedy,' Lewis said, noting that the two had been together in April 1968 when they received the news that the Rev. The demonstration formed part of countrywide student protests against discrimination that began late in 2015. Prior to Kennedy's address, Lewis was speaking to the audience when six student protesters entered the hall and stood silently in front of the stage holding mostly anti-U.S. Lewis was one of the members of Congress on the trip. John Lewis, D-Georgia, who with his fellow Freedom Riders defied local laws, 'risking imprisonment, torture and death.' civil rights struggle, which he believed 'would be won through law,' Kennedy said, noting that there was no one the elder admired more than Rep. Her father's talks in South Africa about freedom, equality and justice were informed by the U.S. While 'the pain of apartheid is far from over' in South Africa, 'no country has done more to show the world how to address entrenched, legalized hatred,' Kennedy said. Kennedy Center Human Rights and author of 'Being Catholic Now,' was joined on her May 30-June 4 trip to South Africa by about two dozen family members, including her three daughters, and several members of the U.S. president, as he campaigns on a platform of hatred against Mexicans, Native Americans, women, immigrants and Muslims.'

She also criticized Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S.

'Hate is the most destructive power on earth,' Kennedy said June 4, citing the vicious attacks of the insurgent Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, acts of genocide, homophobia and anti-Semitism. Kennedy, a New York senator at the time, made 'perhaps the most eloquent speech of his life' at the university during his four-day visit to apartheid-ruled South Africa in June 1966.

Kennedy said June 4 that her father, Robert F. Overcoming hatred and establishing economic rights are the world's greatest challenges, human rights activist Kerry Kennedy said at the University of Cape Town during a program commemorating her father's Day of Affirmation speech at the same institution 50 years ago.

Being Catholic Now by Kerry Kennedy