Robert F. Kennedy, upon hearing of Martin Luther King’s assassination, made a beeline to one of the most impoverished parts of Indianapolis to give a speech to a crowd that had yet to hear the horror that took place a few hours prior in Memphis, Tennessee. Having launched his bid to capture the White House, RFK was in full campaign mode when news broke that King was felled by a conspiracy of hatred. Upon hearing this news, Kennedy decided to scrap his canned speeches and instead chose to speak from the heart; he wanted to be the one to convey the awful truth of what happened that day to a gathering of mostly “African-Americans” at 17th and Broadway.
When his campaign staff caught wind of his plans, they beseeched him to think twice lest he tempt fate by taking to the microphone before an audience that could explode in anger. RFK insisted only to be warned by the local police that he would be responsible for his own safety. Sometimes, the universe moves us when others advise us to stand still. That evening, Kennedy got on top of a pickup truck and gave the most astounding speech I’ve ever heard in my life.
Kennedy’s act of courage saved lives; while city after city throughout America burned to the ground as oppressed souls lashed out, Indianapolis—a city that was predominantly “black”—did not have one fire break out. If you listen closely to Kennedy’s speech, the same crowd that initially gasped when he announced King’s death was driven to ovations by the time he finished his speech. Such is the power of words: within our tongues reside life and death. We can either speak blessings into existence or...
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teodroseIII
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