In 1967, while visiting Mississippi as part of the Senate subcommittee on poverty, Robert Kennedy cradled hungry children, talked with mothers about how they fed their families and examined empty refrigerators. Although he was only in the Delta for a day, Kennedy, the people he encountered, Mississippi and the nation felt the impact of that journey for much longer. What he found in the Delta both shocked and motivated Kennedy to work for significant changes in the nation’s food aid policy. It was a crucial step toward his decision to run for the presidency a year later.
Drawing upon archival research and interviews, Meacham’s presentation outlines Kennedy’s journey through Mississippi and what he saw and heard, concluding with how Kennedy’s visit affected food aid policy, what has changed there and what has not changed since his visit.
Ellen Meacham is a Tennessee native, longtime resident of Mississippi, and a career journalist and journalism instructor at her alma mater, the University of Mississippi. She is the author of Delta Epiphany: Robert F. Kennedy in Mississippi and has been a working journalist for more than two decades. She is a member of the faculty in the University of Mississippi’s journalism school where she teaches news reporting and editing. Meacham is uniquely positioned to write about the South and Mississippi. Her experience as a newspaper reporter has given her extensive contacts within the state’s political and journalistic circles. In addition, her master’s degree in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi undergirds her understanding the culture and the people of the South and the Mississippi Delta.
