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.

(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)

Robert F. Kennedy - April 4, 1968

Just two months later, Robert Kennedy was gunned down during a
celebration following his victory in the California Democratic
Presidential primary, June 5, 1968.