Robert F. Kennedy:
When the news came through that Martin Luther King, had been
assassinated - April 4, 1968 - Robert F. Kennedy, happened to
be addressing a large gathering of African Americans in Indianapolis,
a rally for Kennedy's bid for the presidency. Just two months after this speech, Kennedy himself was assassinated
on June 5, 1968.
Ladies and Gentlemen - I'm only going to talk to you just for
a minute or so this evening. Because...
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 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 these rather difficult
times.
My favorite poet was Aeschylus. 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.
(Interrupted by applause)
So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family
of Martin Luther King, yeah that'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. 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.
(Interrupted by applause)
Let us 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.
(Applause)
This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook.
The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted
texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World
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c)Paul Halsall Aug 1997
