Video clip - Bobby Kennedy announcing the death of Martin
Luther King, Jr. Scroll down for the text transcript.
It follows the full text transcript of
Robert F. Kennedy's speech on the death of
Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered at Indianapolis, Indiana - April
4, 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.
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 improve
the quality of our life, and want justice for
all human beings that 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.
