Video: 'Vietnam: A Television History - Homefront USA [10/11]' (Apr. 4, 1968, at 21:02)

(Thursday, April 4, 1968, at about 8:40 p.m. EST; during the African-American civil rights movement (1954–1968)) — Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, having arrived at Weir Cook Municipal Airport tonight in Indianapolis, Indiana, for a scheduled campaign stop, made his first public statement on the assassination of civil rights leader The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. earlier this evening in Memphis, Tennessee.

In the few minutes since he learned of King’s death, Kennedy said:

“He dedicated himself to justice and love between his fellow human beings. He gave his life for that principle, and I think it’s up to those of us who are here – fellow citizens, public officials and those of us in government – to carry out that dream, to try to end the divisions that exist so deeply within our county, to remove the stain of bloodshed from our land.”