Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--An attorney with a famous family name who has been included in Time magazine's "Heroes for the Planet" speaks April 2 at Mississippi State.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental activist and author, will lead a 7 p.m. public program at the university's Humphrey Coliseum. His presentation, "Crimes Against Nature," shares the title of his 2004 book, subtitled "How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy" (HarperCollins Publishers).
Kennedy is inaugurating the Campus Activities Board's recently created Global Lectureship Series, which will become an annual MSU event. A question-and-answer session with audience members will conclude his program.
Immediately afterwards, he will be at the Barnes & Noble MSU Bookstore for a reception and book signing, also open to the general public.
Kennedy is senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance. Time's "Heroes" designation followed his organization's successful fight to restore New York's Hudson River, an achievement that helped spawn more than 125 Waterkeeper groups around the world.
After graduating from Harvard University and studying at the London School of Economics, Kennedy went on to receive a law degree from the University of Virginia. He also holds a master's degree in environmental law from Pace University.
In addition to "Crimes Against Nature," he is the author of two other works, "The Riverkeepers" (1997) and "Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr.: A Biography" (1977). He is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Atlantic Monthly, and numerous other publications.
[Johnson (1918-99), the Alabama federal judge whose forceful civil rights rulings helped change the country's social and political fabric, received the MSU Pre-Law Society's Distinguished Jurist Award in 1978--the second year the student organization presented the honor.]
Kennedy is the son and namesake of the former United States attorney general who was seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for the presidency when he was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968. He is the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, and currently serving U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., a senior member of Congress.
For more information on the program, telephone the CAB office at 662-325-2930.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: Additional questions about Mr. Kennedy's campus visit or CAB's new lecture series may be answered by CAB adviser Paula Raffo. In addition to the above telephone number, she can be reached at phr1@msstate.edu.