“Each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation.”
So said Robert F. Kennedy to students at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, on June 6, 1966. Indeed, this book is evidence of the power not of one, but of many working toward a common goal. To all those who played a role in creating this book, I am truly grateful. First and foremost, thank you to the people I interviewed. Their insights fill these pages, and they have left their mark on our country and the wider world, using their gifts to help create equal justice, stronger community, and more beauty, all at personal sacrifice. They are leaders who choose not to sit idly by and critique, but to enter the arena. Their wisdom abounds.
Thank you to Nelson Lewis, on whom I depend every day, for scheduling appointments, keeping track of lists, hunting down photos and releases, getting the recorder to work and the videos to send. He did it all with meticulous detail and reliably good humor, often after hours and on weekends. I cannot imagine a more unflappable, kind, patient, hardworking aide. I am forever grateful.
Thank you to my daughter Cara, who transcribed many of the interviews. Our talks about the content helped hone the process and bring out the best in the work and most of all made writing this book a source of deep joy for me. My daughter Mariah wrote her thesis on Cesar Chavez and Robert F. Kennedy, and we interviewed Dolores Huerta together, which added depth and meaning. Thank you to all the other transcribers, who put such effort into the process. Michaela, I love you!
I spoke with Marc Grossman extensively about the idea of this book, and he helped draft the proposal and researched the background for each of the interviews. Marc worked as communications director for Cesar Chavez for decades, and I deeply appreciate our extensive discussions about the history of the farmworkers’ movement and the struggle for justice. For advice and support throughout, thank you to Lynn Delaney. Lynn has devoted most of the last three decades to Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. Her knowledge about my father, his life, his friends, and all that he stood for informs the work of the organization.
Thank you to Laurie Austin at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library for helping me find photographs, track down photographers, and determine copyrights. Laurie is a dedicated public servant.
Thank you to the photographers who donated their works to this book—to Harry Benson, who joined us on the Snake River in 1966 and who remains to this day one of my dearest friends, along with his ever-generous manager, whom he had the good sense to marry, Gigi. Thank you to Mort Zuckerman, Eric Gertler, and the New York Daily News for the use of their photos. Thank you to Steve Shapiro, who traveled with my parents across Latin America and around much of the United States. And thank you to all the other photographers who documented my father’s life.
Thank you to Kate Hartson, my editor at Hachette, for her enthusiasm and insightful suggestions on the book. Kate was kind and generous from day one, and I feel lucky to know her. Jaime Coyne is a terrific associate editor. At Aevitas Creative Management, thank you to David Kuhn, my agent and ever-reliable champion, and William LoTurco, who reminded me of looming deadlines and kept me on track.
A very special thanks to Daniel Zitlin, whose red pen and razor-sharp ability to separate the meat from the fat is evident across the book. Daniel was an absolute joy to work with: easy, reliable, insightful, and fast.
Shannon and Drew Hayden, thank you for a much-needed retreat at your home in Newton—a sharp contrast after seven days in a row of eighty people at each dinner over our weeklong family-and-friends reunion in Hyannis Port. Gail Evertz, thank you, dear friend, for your generosity, huge energy, and gratitude, but especially for your talents as a farmer.
Hope and Robert Smith, the days I spent at your ranch in Colorado served as inspiration: the history of Lincoln Hills as one of the four communities for African American recreation over the last one hundred years; walking the paths of my favorite poets, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston; being surrounded by photographs of black cowboys, gold miners, and the great musicians who came there to play and whose photos grace the walls (Armstrong, Fitzgerald, Horne, and more). After several days of catch and release (I would catch, and the fish would release itself), actually landing my first trout on a fly line after fifty-plus years of failed attempts reminded me to never ever give up. A special thank-you to Zoë, Eliana, Max, Hendrix, and Legend, who took me canoeing, hiking, fishing, riding, beat me in Bananagrams, and made me laugh throughout.