Recovered from FSRN’s earlier site via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. The audio here is FSRN’s own production recording. Originally published August 26, 2009.
Throughout his 47 years in the US Senate, Ted Kennedy championed civil rights and fought against voting inequalities and discrimination in both schools and the workplace.
Kennedy´s bills sought to redress inequalities affecting African Americans, immigrants, families with children and people with disabilities, when in 1990, he helped to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act. This groundbreaking law created more work opportunities for people with disabilities and required employers to provide them with reasonable accommodations.
When Kennedy was first elected to the US senate in the 1960s, activists in the south were mobilizing against racism, segregation and voting inequalities. One of those prominent activists was Congressmember John Lewis, who eventually was elected to the US House and worked with Ted Kennedy to protect and strengthen civil rights laws.
FSRN´s Leigh Ann Caldwell spoke to Congressmember John Lewis about Kennedy´s legacy.
