It was early April. A few days earlier, a beleaguered Lyndon Johnson shocked his countrymen by announcing his decision not to run for a second full term as president. After years of escalating the war in Vietnam at the advice of his Secretary of Defense (Robert McNamara) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, American soldiers were no closer to winning the war and leaving the Southeast Asian nation than four years earlier..
For largely that reason, Robert 'Bobby' Kennedy decided to run for the Democratic Party nomination against LBJ in 1968. As LBJ had already suffered a bitter loss to John F. Kennedy for the Democratic nomination in 1960, he was not about to expose himself to any further political humiliation at the hands of a family he regarded as pompous and elitist. In fact, LBJ and Bobby largely despised each other. Rather than run as a wounded warrior with a Vietnam albatross around his neck, LBJ made plans to retire to his ranch in Texas. At that moment, Bobby Kennedy, the former Attorney General and current Senator of New York, became a leading candidate for president. Many if not most people believed that another Nixon-Kennedy showdown was in the offing for the November general election. This time, however, it would be a Nixon eight years older against the younger brother of his former political nemesis.
.
On 4 April, an assassin's bullet ended the life of the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. Similar to Bobby Kennedy, he had championed equal rights, desegregation and was an outspoken critic of both the Vietnam War and economic injustice in America. Unlike Malcolm X and some other militant black leaders, King, who had been heavily influenced by Gandhi, advocated non-violence and a peaceful reconciliation between whites and blacks. As a result, his message had won the hearts and minds of a significant number of white, middle-class Americans. When King was gunned down, race relations seemed to be at a flashpoint. How would blacks react? If a majority had decided to turn away from non-violence and embrace a militant approach, the next decade would have been fraught with racial violence from coast-to-coast. Fortunately, blacks opted to continue the path of non-violent protest to honor the legacy of Dr. King.
.
One speech on the day of King's assassination played a significant part in keeping the black community on the path of non-violence, and it was not given by a black man. A few minutes prior to taking the podium at a campaign appearance in Indianapolis, Bobby Kennedy was informed that the crowd had not yet learned of King's death. Bobby was ready. On the way to the Indiana capital, he had prepared a short speech to address the tragic event. Behind the microphone, Bobby delivered the news and launched into one of the most compelling speeches ever given in American history.
.
When Bobby said the word 'killed', the onlookers responded with a collective gasp and shriek of horror. Then, stunned into silence, they listened to the orator - a man who was no stranger to tragedy himself. In a compassionate tone, he directly addressed blacks both in the audience and in the nation. After saying that he could understand the temptation for retribution and hatred of the white man, he asked African-Americans (a term not used then) to consider the options. One option was to resort to violence and mutual distrust. The other option was to advance King's dream of racial harmony through peaceful measures to bring about equal justice for all in America.
.
The crowd, still stunned, hung on his every word. In the course of his speech, Bobby mentioned the death of his brother at the hands of a white man, and then he bridged the deaths of his brother and King together by citing a passage from Agamemnon by the ancient Greek playwright and poet Aeschylus (525BC-456BC):
.
'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'
.
At the 1964 Democratic convention, Bobby had recited the same passage to honor his fallen brother. Blacks in the crowd and around the United States understood his message and the larger truth. All Americans, regardless of race, color or creed, share the same desire for 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. Progress toward achieving social and economic justice could never be made separately. It could only be made together with respect and compassion.
.
By the end of his remarks, the crowd was applauding and cheering - determined not to allow the loss of King derail their efforts to bring about a better America. It was a moving moment at a pivotal time in American history, and it has not been forgotten.
.
Bobby Kennedy would not live out the remainder of the year. Only four months later, he was killed in Los Angeles while on his way to the Democratic nomination and possibly the presidency. Despite his tragic end, Bobby's dream, the same dream held by Martin Luther King and millions of Americans, did not die.
.
In that year of 1968, Bobby looked at the progress of the civil rights movement and predicted that a black person could be elected to the presidency within forty years.
.
Exactly forty years later in 2008, Barack Obama was elected president.
.
(To watch Bobby Kennedy's 4 April 1968 speech, please click on the YouTube Video to the right)
.
J Roquen