Bobby Kennedy: The Day After the Murder of Dr. Martin Luther King

The day of and the day after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy was a clarion voice. Many of us remember the speech that Bobby made in Indianapolis the day of Dr. King's death in which he announced to a gathered crowd that Dr. King had been murdered.

Personally, I do not recall the speech that he made the following day. A powerful speech from a man who was clearly moved deeply by the death of one of the greatest Americans of the 20th Century.

Here is some of what Bobby said the day after the King assassination:

"... we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.

Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all."

For an audio presentation of Bobby Kennedy's speech April 5, 1968 please see:

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