‘Ripple of Hope’ chronicles RFK’s actions before assassination
June 5th, 2008
Covenant Productions at Anderson University recently produced A Ripple of Hope, an independent documentary which captures one poignant day in the life of Robert Kennedy and explores a little known act of personal courage and responsibility.
A Ripple of Hope premiered in Anderson and Indianapolis on April 3 and 4, 2008. It also aired nationally on PBS in the weeks following.
Robert Kennedy was assassinated on June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, after winning the California primary.
Two years before his assassination, Robert Kennedy said, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he 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.”
On April 4th, 1968 the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Robert Kennedy was in the midst of a presidential campaign that was attempting to bridge racial and economic divisions. As word of the assassination spread, riots and fires erupted in cities across the nation. Urged to cancel a rally before a mixed crowd in the inner city of Indianapolis, Robert Kennedy refused. The threat of violence was very real. But the few, simple words he spoke that night are credited with creating a sense of calm that settled over those neighborhoods during chaotic days following Dr. King’s death.
A Ripple of Hope dramatically retells the events of that tragic day 40 years ago thru the eyes of those who were there. With original music by John Colby, the Grammy Award winning creator of the Ken Burns Civil War soundtrack, audiences have been inspired and challenged by a single dream shared by two very different men.
Robert Kennedy’s words that night are remarkably relevant today. From the inner city of Indianapolis to a Memphis Hotel, A Ripple of Hope explores the passion for justice, and the personal courage that linked these two extraordinary figures in life as well as death.
A Ripple of Hope was produced and directed by award winning filmmaker and AU Professor of Communications Donald Boggs.
For more information go to www.rippleofhopemovie.com.
Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.
