Some anniversaries regarding both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy passed recently. I posted a brief blog about MLK, but never got around to posted one for RFK.
I respect and appreciate both of these men a great deal. I came across this famous video today. It's one of my favorite for many reasons. It's such an ironic and symbolic overlap of these two significant leaders. It's so amazing that this speech was made by RFK about MLK only months before his own assassination and less than a decade after JFK's assassination.
I learned even more about this speech on NPR this past year and have grown to appreciate it even more. Two things in particular..
1. RFK's son points out that because the neighborhood where RFK gave this speech was considered to be so dangerous that some of the police escort separated him from a chunk of his staff. It happens that he was separated from the staff which had the original draft for this speech. He didn't have it with him when he gave the speech. So much if this is from last minute notes, his memory and his heart. The poem that he recites at the end of the speech was from his memory - it was one of his favorite poems.
2. News of MLK's death resulted in riots across the USA. Almost every major city had at least some size riot. The city that this speech was given in, Indianapolis - which is not exactly known for it's racial peacefulness at that time - was one of the only major cities that didn't have major violence break out.
This isn't my favorite video for this speech - I don't like all of the photos - but it has a good and complete version of the audio.
As an added bonus I've also included this amazing speech given by Robert F. Kennedy on April 5, 1968...
I respect and appreciate both of these men a great deal. I came across this famous video today. It's one of my favorite for many reasons. It's such an ironic and symbolic overlap of these two significant leaders. It's so amazing that this speech was made by RFK about MLK only months before his own assassination and less than a decade after JFK's assassination.
I learned even more about this speech on NPR this past year and have grown to appreciate it even more. Two things in particular..
1. RFK's son points out that because the neighborhood where RFK gave this speech was considered to be so dangerous that some of the police escort separated him from a chunk of his staff. It happens that he was separated from the staff which had the original draft for this speech. He didn't have it with him when he gave the speech. So much if this is from last minute notes, his memory and his heart. The poem that he recites at the end of the speech was from his memory - it was one of his favorite poems.
2. News of MLK's death resulted in riots across the USA. Almost every major city had at least some size riot. The city that this speech was given in, Indianapolis - which is not exactly known for it's racial peacefulness at that time - was one of the only major cities that didn't have major violence break out.
This isn't my favorite video for this speech - I don't like all of the photos - but it has a good and complete version of the audio.
As an added bonus I've also included this amazing speech given by Robert F. Kennedy on April 5, 1968...
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