Reflecting on Dr. King's Assassination and RFK's Speech 51 Years Later

Fifty-one years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down by an assassin in Memphis, Tennessee. Most of you probably know the details by now, but he was in Memphis on behalf of the sanitation workers who were striking for better working conditions.

The death threats mounted, and Dr. King went to Memphis anyway. He was taken from us at 39, and we were robbed of whatever he would have done after April 4, 1968. While his journey stopped, others picked up the standard and have continued to push for racial equality in our country.

In Indiana that same day, another young man was campaigning for the office of President of the United States. Robert F. Kennedy was relatively new to the race for President in 1968, and he was fighting for every vote in every primary.

On the way from Muncie to Indianapolis, he was informed of King's assassination and was urged to cancel his rally in Indianapolis. Instead of canceling his rally, Kennedy climbed on the back of a flatbed truck and delivered a speech with very little preparation that not only informed the gathered audience of King's shooting but consoled them and soothed them.

While many other cities erupted in violence that evening, Indianapolis was quiet.

All of this happened before I was born, but I remember my father telling me the story and showing me the text of the speech as a boy. It's something every parent should do because in just a few minutes, Kennedy gave us a great eulogy of Dr. King and a road map for fixing what continues to plague our society.

Going back and looking at the rhetorical structure of the speech, one would wonder if any other person in any other place could have delivered those particular remarks. The words are beautiful, well-chosen and extremely prescient even to today. In particular, the last few lines of the speech flash like a beacon through the fog of history.

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.

I wonder if we are capable of doing what Kennedy asks. Today, 51 years after these lines were delivered, I wonder if we even trust one another or trust the institutions enough to show that love or that compassion. Are we capable of that?

Tonight, let's honor Dr. King for his sacrifice, his courage and his work. Let's mourn what we lost and let's lift our heads tomorrow and move forward in search of the love and compassion we need to solve our nation's problems.

Incidentally, as you probably know, on June 4, 1968, Senator Kennedy won the California Primary. At the victory party in the wee hours of June 5, Kennedy would also be assassinated.