Overview

On April 4th, 1968 the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Robert Kennedy was in the midst of a presidential campaign that was attempting to bridge racial and economic divisions. As word of the assassination spread, riots and fires erupted in cities across the nation. Urged to cancel a rally before a mixed crowd in the inner city of Indianapolis, Robert Kennedy refused. The threat of violence was very real. But the few, simple words he spoke that night are credited with creating a sense of calm that settled over those neighborhoods during chaotic days following Dr. King’s death.