Robert Francis “Bobby” Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968) on the death, 40 years ago today, of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968). RFK was running for president and scheduled to make a campaign address in Indianapolis, Indiana to a large gathering of African Americans. Instead, he had to break the devastating news to them, in what American Rhetoric presents as one of their Top 100 Speeches (w/ text and video), RFK on MLK, April 4 1968: (6:02 mp3):

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.

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