Robert Francis Kennedy’s speech on the assassination of Martin Luther King
Following the assassination of the civil rights movement leader, Martin Luther King, on April 4, 1968, the United States faced a wave of unprecedented civil disturbance.
Although Martin Luther King leadership was based on principles of non-violence and his actions were pursued within the political system, his death sparked a wave of insurrection: anger and disillusionment filled the hearts of black and underprivileged Americans. Martin Luther King assassination riots — also known as the Holy Week Uprising — touched all major cities across America, but one: Indianapolis.
On April 4, Senator Robert Francis Kennedy was campaigning in Indiana for the Democrats presidential nomination. Robert F. Kennedy was made aware of King death shortly before boarding a plane to fly to Indianapolis.
John F. Kennedy younger brother was due to rally in 17th and Broadway street, in the heart of an African-American neighbourhood. Despite being warned against — including by Richard Lugar, the then-mayor of Indianapolis — he went ahead and addressed the crowd, carrying the burden of announcing the terrible news to a still unaware audience.
Instead of giving his planned electoral speech — and refusing notes from his speechwriters — he delivered a brief statement that he wrote on his way to the venue. Touched by the sincerity and the depth of his words, Indianapolis remained peaceful this evening. To this day, Robert F. Kennedy remarks on King death remain one of the great public addresses of the modern era.
In the light of recent events in the United-States — and the turmoil in its politics — perhaps it is worth taking a few minutes to remember what Robert F. Kennedy told us years ago.
I have bad news for you, 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 killed tonight.
Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.
In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is 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 there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible — you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization — black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.
Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.
For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I 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 go beyond these rather difficult times.
My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: “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 or lawlessness; but 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 they be black.
So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, 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; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is 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 who abide in our land.
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.
