“All around our nations, Negroes and Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans and Indians, poor whites in Appalachia and in blighted inner cities, are waking up to what we have. They are demanding their rights as human beings. They are demanding what the rest of us have taken for granted—a measure of control over their lives, over their destinies, a sense of communication with those whom they have elected to represent to government. If we do not yield, if we do not work a virtual revolution in the organization of our social services, the result could be the ripping asunder of the already thin fabric of American life.”

—ROBERT F. KENNEDY