they know that my girls are getting. we have that we ought to be. could you lower those signs, please? i have some very sad news for all of you, and that is that martin luther king was shot and was killed tonight in memphis. martin luther king dedicated his life. to love and to justice between fellow human beings.

you know, actually standing at the intersection of 17th street and broadway, broadway and annapolis, indiana, both 6202. this is the spot where on april 4th, robert kennedy gave his impromptu speech, so to speak, informing the crowd of martin luther king's assassination. i was in a position on this side. so if you look at the picture up there of robert kennedy at the time he gave his speech, of course, this a collage. but that was that was the angle from which i was looking at. and i was no more than 25 feet away. so i was relatively close being here as early as i was. so i got a good spot. we did get here early. 24 years old at the time, just got out of the navy the year before i came home and in

annapolis it changed somewhat. i mean, this was still a predominantly black neighborhood. i had spent four years in the navy and become a journeyman printer and i came home and i couldn't get a job. based on the experience becse. it was 1968 and i was a young black man, basically. so i was here with a group of young people about my age and some maybe a little younger. i wanted to see for myself and hear for myself what he had to say. kennedy was an indian, of course, to enter the any had a democratic presidential primary just the month before, on march 16th. kennedy in washington, d.c., had announced that he would be trying to win the nomination for the democratic presidential race. it was pretty crowded field at that time. the incumbent president, lyndon johnson, was still in the race. from minnesota, eugene mccarthy,

had also thrown his hat into the ring for the nomination. and really, the indiana primary was the first opportunity for him to test out his message and his campaign with voters. so although it was a long shot. indiana, which is a more conservative state, even among democrats, didn't seem like the right state for kennedy to start his campaign in. and it was a bit of a gamble. but as kennedy himself said, you know, my whole campaign's a gamble, so we're going to give it a try in indiana. following his speeches is in south bend at the university of notre dame on april 4th and his subsequent talk at ball state university. kennedy was supposed to, according to his schedule, fly to indianapolis, coming at where cook airport, as it was then known from there, go to downtown indianapolis to open up his new campaign headquarters.

after that event, he was supposed to come out here to the broadway christian center at 17th and broadway streets, which was in the heart of an african-american neighborhood. give his standard campaign speech, talk about what he was going to do if he won th nomination. and they were also signing up voters registering people to vote because they would need every vote they could. when the may 7th primary came around on the way to indianapolis when he was at the muncie airport. there are a couple of reports that kennedy heard the news that king had been shot. not the news that he had died yet, just that he had been shot. so when he arrived in indianapolis at the airport, kennedy finally learned that king had died. and there was a lot of confusion about what the kennedy campaign should do. should they cancel the speech or should they go ahead with it? they knew they were going to cancel their appearance at the

campaign headquarters. that was a given, but they didn't know what to do. and there were people here at the side who got word back to kennedy airport that, you know, you're going to have to come out here and say something, because if you don't, there might be some trouble. already, news was filtering out that a lot of major american cities had violence occurring when people heard the news about king's death. so kennedy was someone, i think, who could speak to people directly and give them bad news and be counted upon to do the right thing. and so it was decided that kennedy would come to 17th and broadway streets to address the crowd that had gathered there. kennedy had no prepared text from his campaign speechwriters. he was with his key campaign aide, fred dutton, and there was kind of a what am i going to say, air in that car.

you know, what am i going to say to these people, kenny didn't know and didn't really have any advice to give him this street. they were standing on 17th street. it actually did not end the way it is now as we've before. so it actually continued all the way through. so the sad work sidewalk would be just about where you are standing and the flatbed truck was maybe ten feet, ten, 20 feet beyond the sidewalk. actually, i don't think i could tell anything. i mean, it just seemed like the no normal hustle and bustle of getting something together, except for the fact that you could you could hear him say had to do they know? do they know about martin luther king? you know, and, of course, the answer was no, because the majority of people here hadn't heard it. and so that was his first. first thing i could hear him saying, you know, they know that

martin luther king, we have that we all. could you lower those signs, please? i have some very sad news for all of you and that is that martin luther king was shot and was killed tonight and that was the when i was here and listen to his speech, the the pendulum of my emotions, i could see it swaying. and it was in a matter of minutes because i think the speech lasted no more than six or 7 minutes. but. it went from when he first made the announcement. of one of anger and revenge in the sound of that, the collective moans and the sighs. it could not only be heard, but

to me it could be felt. i felt the wave of emotion that came through that crowd. for those of you who are black and are tempted to fill with be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act against all white people. i would only say that i can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. i had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. but we have to make an effort in the united state. we have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond or go beyond these rather difficult times. the speech, like i said, didn't last but 6 minutes. but the i could feel my emotions move from one of anger and regret and binge to a remorse,

feeling sorry for this country and the family and his kids to one. finally, by the time he got to the end of the speech, the words that he spoke brought me to another level of understanding. after his talk here. kennedy went back to the marriott hotel. he was scheduled to meet with a group of african american leaders after his speech. that meeting went on. it was highly charge atmosphere, as you can imagine, with king's death. but kennedy kind of smooth things over and made sure that they know that they had a friend in him and his campaign aides. they could always call on them if they had any questions or problems while he was going to be in indiana. i think there were mainly upset. of course, they lost a beloved leader. they were upset about that. and here's an establishment figure. and robert kennedy and i think they took out a lot of their anger on him because he was there at the time.

kennedy took it with good grace. he did point out, you know, he didn't have to be there. you know, he was wealthy. he was an established person. he had his own family to worry about. he could have stayed home at his estate in virginia. but no, he was out here talking to them late in the evening and listening to their concerns. so i think that really mollified most of their concerns at the ti robert kennedy wins the indiana primary. you know, he goes around the state is very happy withay he'sated by indiana voters felt that they gave him a chance. they listened to what he had to say and they resonated with his message. from there, can be went on to win a primaries in nebraska they go on mccarthy and kennedy out to western primaries. mccarthy actually defeats kennedy in the oregon primary the first time any kennedy had

lost an election. and so it comes down to the california primary. the big prize with the most delegates. kennedy ekes out a narrow victory in early june, the evening after he wins the he's at the ambassador ho los angeles. he takes a shortcut through the sirhan sirhan as assassinated and dies a few hours later. i think kennedy's coming to indianapolis shows you the part, the chance plays in history. sometimes you had all these things that had to come together to bring kennedy to indianapolis on april 4th, to make those remarks to the crowd at the broadway christian center following martin luther king jr. step. words have power. and if you if if, if, if. words spoken sincerely and with meaning, people get it.

and i think that he had a way the impromptu speech, as it might have been, was weave together so well that like a needle, it pierced the hearts and minds and speaking personally, the soul to make me think deeper about what this was. so that it was easy for me to see the change of my emotions from the first one of anger and revenge, you know, move to remorse, you know, to then finally to come to the understanding that, you know, dr. king realized that the message that he was bringing was one that called for sacrifice, ultimate need, the ultimate sacrifice. he understood that, you know, but he also understood that it had to be done. and what dedicate ourselves to what the greeks wrote so many years ago to tame the savage

ness of man and make gentle the life of this world that has dedicate ourselves to that and say a prayer for our country and for our people. thank you very much.

please join me in welcoming our presidential families forum 2024 descendants for this year. please welcome to the stage, mr. massey mckinley.