Steve Frey
Fifty years ago this very evening, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. April 4, 1968, will be remembered as one of the saddest days in our history.
The leader who helped to move our country from separate seating in movie theaters, separate seats in the back of the bus, separate and unequal schools and so many other discriminatory practices was dead.
Virginia was in the middle of Massive Resistance against the desegregation of schools during this time. Peaceful marches across the South were met with beatings, attacks by German Shepherds and fire hoses.
King and others in the Civil Rights movement were making slow inroads, but his assassination threatened to derail that effort.
King will be deservedly remembered throughout our country today for all that he accomplished for all Americans, but something extraordinary happened in Indianapolis, Indiana this same evening that provided a glimmer of hope on that dark April night.
Senator Robert F. Kennedy made an extemporaneous, compassionate speech for the ages and gained the respect of everyone who was there or learned about it later.
Kennedy was on his way to speaking in an Indianapolis ghetto as a newly announced presidential candidate when he heard of King’s death, but he did not have time to prepare a written speech.
He climbed on a flatbed truck and announced to the crowd, “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.”
After he made that announcement, there were shrieks, gasps and screams from the mostly black audience. That is when Kennedy began to speak directly from his heart. He started with, “Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.”
Kennedy went on to talk about division in our country, that blacks and whites could become more polarized or try to “make an effort, as 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.”
He also explained that he understood how people in the crowd felt about King’s murder since he had lost a brother to an assassin. He shared their feelings of despair from his own heartbreaking experience.
He went on to say, “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.”
Kennedy spoke directly to the people in the crowd from deep in his soul. He did not blame. He did not use politician-talk, filled with generalities and platitudes.
He was a leader standing up and helping people grieve, but he was also one with them.
If you watch the speech, and I encourage to do so (www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCrx_u3825g), you will be impressed with his very evident sincerity and empathy.
We need more leaders like Robert F. Kennedy in our country. We need politicians who can talk honestly and passionately to people, relating to their feelings and needs.
We have too many politicians who speak only after extensive opinion polling or address just their base, often in divisive and demeaning ways. Too many politicians use artificial sound bites to say something but express nothing.
By the way, Kennedy also visited Appalachia in mid-February of ’68. People there, poor white people, were also impressed with his willingness to listen, his compassion and his intent to do something to help.
That followed inquiry trips to the San Joaquin Valley of California, the Mississippi Delta, northern New Mexico and the hills of western Pennsylvania. In all cases, he made the same impression because of his honesty and caring.
In his speech in Indianapolis, he went on to say that, “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.”
Kennedy’s words still ring true today. People in America, white and black and every other color, want justice and equality for all.
When we see the Confederate flag flying over the hate-filled speeches of White Nationalists, though, we realize that King’s work is not finished, and we understand just how much we need leaders like Kennedy to stand up and continue to support the movement toward equality for people of color in our country.
Kennedy was not black, but he communicated to black people that yes, white people also hated the discrimination and brutality that was widespread at this time. He understood their persecution, struggle, and frustration.
Today, we should try to emulate the words and actions of King and Kennedy.
When we see injustice to any American, all of us, regardless of race, religion or national origin need to join together to condemn it.
When we witness discrimination and prejudice, all Americans must take a stand and say, “No more. Not in the America that we love.”
When politicians use race to divide people and develop a following on the back of that divisiveness, people who care about the unity of our people, justice for all, and our American values must work together to vote them from office.
Kennedy mentioned a quote in his speech, “My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He 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.'”
Over time, we have gained the painful understanding of what minorities have experienced in our country. That pain has slowly dripped into our hearts through the assassinations of people like King; through the realization that black unemployment is twice as high as for whites; through the fact that inner city schools do not get the resources necessary to educate children properly, creating a disproportionate dropout rate and through the recent deaths of so many unarmed blacks throughout the country.
Yes, many inequalities still exist. With that pain, however, comes the knowledge that we can change our country if we work together as a united family.
Yes, there are poor blacks today in the inner city; there are poor whites in Appalachia; there are poor Native Americans on reservation land; there are poor Hispanics in the Barrio. In America, however, with our enormous resources and opportunity, combined with our compassion and encouragement for all, we can find a way to finally live the Dream that Martin Luther King held dear but never witnessed to fruition.
Kennedy brought grieving people together that night in an Indianapolis ghetto. He asked them to go home and pray for our country and each other. And they did. That night, 50 years ago today, riots broke out in most major American cities because of the murder of King, but not in Indianapolis.
Sadly, 63 days later, Kennedy was also assassinated, and he did not live to see King’s Dream, either.
Now, it is up to us to keep the promise that people like King and Kennedy fought so hard to achieve.
Charles Dickens once said, “I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.”
As Americans, we know they are, and on that April night filled with despair in Indianapolis, Robert Kennedy showed just how strong real love and truth could be.
Steve Frey is a writer and CEO of Ascendant Educational Services based in Radford.
