Washington, D.C. – The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial is pleased to announce the selection of John Hope Franklin’s Mirror to America as the first-prize winner of the 2006 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, with Nick Kotz’s Judgment Days and P.W. Singer’s Children at War receiving distinguished honors.

The Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards Ceremony will be held on Tuesday, May 25th at 6:00 PM at the Georgetown University in Washington, DC. At the event, Mrs. Robert Kennedy will present awards to John Hope Franklin, Nick Kotz and P.W. Singer.

RFK Book Award Chairs Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and John Seigenthaler, Sr. joined this year’s distinguished panel of judges: Newsweek managing editor and author Jon Meacham; University of Illinois professor and author Christopher Benson; Clinton senior advisor and author Ted Widmer; and former Maryland Lieutenant-Governor and professor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. The judges chose to honor three authors this year, noting that the winners “uphold the highest tradition of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award by highlighting some of the most timely and pressing issues in America and around the world.”

Seigenthaler wrote, "The judges unanimously selected John Hope Franklin's autobiography, Mirror to America, for this year’s award, finding that the book reflects, with power and poignancy, the distinguished historian's remarkable life of challenge and achievement in a nation conflicted and cursed by racial intolerance. The judges also recognized for distinguished honors Nick Kotz, whose Judgment Days details the fascinating cooperation between President Lyndon Johnson and Dr. Martin Luther King in promoting civil rights legislation, and P. W. Singer, for Children at War, a chilling account of the tragic foreign phenomenon of adolescents forced to take up arms to fight for their country."

Each year, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial presents the Book Award to the author whose work reflects Robert Kennedy’s concern for the oppressed; his commitment to justice, democracy and human rights; and his belief in the power of individuals to affect social change. Past winners of the RFK Book Award include Vice President Al Gore, Congressman John Lewis, Toni Morrison, Anthony Lukas, Stephen B. Oates and Jonathon Kozol.

Robert Kennedy's belief that individual action could overcome injustice and oppression continues to inspire generations to change the world. For more than three decades, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial has been dedicated to furthering his legacy by working for social justice and human rights through its domestic and international programs.

For more information, please visit www.rfkmemorial.org or call (202) 463-7575.