Fifty Six years ago on Thursday, April 4th Robert Kennedy was in Indianapolis campaigning for the Democratic nomination when he was told of Martin Luther King’s Death. When the news was broken to him, according to reporters with him, it waslike baody blow to the senator. Though his staff tried to dissuade him from speaking to the crowd in a predominantly black neighborhood, he insisted.
In attempting to calm a city on the edge of chaos, he would deliver one of the most eloquent extemporaneous speeches of the twentieth century.
“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.”
The senator reminded them gently that he too had had a family member killed and that his family member was killed by a white man.
In two months, Kennedy too would be killed by an assassin’s bullet.
Envisioning The American Dream 
race politics so 19th century imho
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It was a sad day for our country. And Bobby’s speech was perhaps one of the most heartfelt ever by an American politician. Thanks for the telling of this story. Democracy is hard fought and marked by tragedies. Those of us who remember these moments firsthand have seen a lot.
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The fact that he spoke extemporaneous and straight from his heart, such a rarity now, makes this even more poignant.
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