Bobby Kennedy anounces Martin Luther King's death, Indianapolic, IN 1968 (TEXT)

April 4, 1968, Indianapolis, IN

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening, because I have some -- some very sad news for all of you -- Could you lower those signs, please? -- I have some very sad news for all of you, and, I think, sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world; and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black -- considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible -- you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization -- black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to fill with -- be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.

But we have to make an effort in the United States. We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times.

My favorite poem, my -- my favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote:

Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King -- yeah, it's true -- but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love -- a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.

We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past, but we -- and we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's not the end of disorder.

But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.

And let's dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.

Thank you very much.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Robert
• Kennedy
• Bobby
• RFK
• MLK
• Artin
• Luther
• King
• Assassination
• Speech
• Eulogy
• Death
• Indianapolis
• Indiana
• April
• 1968

[nyall1976]

Truly sad and horribly tragic how America killed its own group of true game changers and now we languish in a dribble of what might have been a great storm of revolution! Sadly now and possibly forever we sit and wonder what might have been and what will be.

[moishefriedman]

Thanks for posting. I get teary-eyed every time I hear this speech, and I've listened to it many times. There was simply no one like him in the last 50 years, and I mourn his loss, as I do MLK's. And I can't help myself but to play the "if only" game in my head, as useless as that is. If only they had survived. With RFK as President, MLK in a prominent active Civil Rights advocacy role, what a country this would have been... But again, thank you for posting this.

[madjack18]

"...I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man..."

oh Bobby :,( x

[samboojonez123]

Love him<3

[jamesrledwith]

Amazing. Truth.



[Striped27]

Robert Kennedy to use his own awful experience to relate to the people show what an amazing man of character and heart he was

[dude6057]

robert kennedy didn't have this speech prepared, he spoke all this on the fly. its trully amazing

[mjispureofheart]

"Anybody here seen my old friend Martin? Can you tell me where he's gone? Freed a lot of people. But it seems the good, they die young."

"Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby? Can you tell me where he's gone? Anybody here seen my old friend John? Can you tell me where he's gone?" No doubt the three of them are leaders in heaven,

[benjistrong]

You know... this was all made up on the spot. I can tell why my speech teacher reccomended this, MLK, and Reagan as great references...

[kooljsl]

the greatest non-president America ever had.

[stackingswivel]

Yes, great great speech and no Teleprompters either..

[bluesboy25000]

God Bless Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Junior. We would have been a better country had Bobby become President.