Client: LAUSD
Artists: May Sun & Richard Wyatt

The Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park consists of a 6 ft. tall by 24 ft. wide stainless steel entryway with cut-outs in the form of a ripple in the water and cut-out text taken from the Day of Affirmation Address he gave in South Africa in 1966. “Few will have the greatness to bend history; but 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….It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against in-justice, it sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Through the cut-out openings in the stain-less steel, you can see a photo-etched portrait in black granite of Robert Kennedy on the back wall. The back wall is 8 ft. X 110 ft. long and is made form Jerusalem Gold Stone and his portrait is flanked by etched quotes in the stone. Robert Kennedy’s speeches, some of which pertain to education, are interspersed by quotes from people who he was inspired by and by people who were inspired by him, including farm worker leaders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, whom he met, joined and marched with in Delano, California in 1966.