RFK Pushes Anti-Poverty Program

June 11, 1965 - The Haryou-Act (Harlem Youth Act) agency got help today from the voice and presence of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in announcing its $2,130,000 summer emergency program against poverty and delinquency in Harlem.

The agency made its announcement in a vacant lot on 115th St., between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Kennedy was among those who made speeches to a small crowd and to dozens of residents who leaned out windows and stood on stoops.

The rubble-strewn lot will be turned into a small park by young workers taking part in the special 10-week program in which they will have useful employment while improving their neighborhoods and adding to recreational facilities.

Haryou-Act officials estimate that 2,500 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 25 will work on the program, which will be financed with Federal funds. They will receive a minimum of $1.25 an hour for a 32-hour week.

In addition to the creation of tiny parks where open dumps now exist, the youngsters will also take part in day-camp, building maintenance, tree-planting, and other projects.

The Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington said that approval of the grant was expected sometime next week.

Kennedy told today’s audience that the most important element of the program “is the giving to the people of hope.” The idea, he said, “didn’t begin with the Federal government,” but with Harlem leaders.

Then the Senator walked around the lot at the request of cameramen. It contained a rubble of broken foundation rock, bricks, flattened beer cans, broken glass, pieces of corrugated metal, a few patches of grass, rusted bedsprings, and broken bags spilling garbage.

The bags had been dropped — “airmailed” is the colloquial term — from the upper stories.

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