Robert Kennedy urges 'compassion' after King murder 50 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Apr 4 1968)

Video: 'The Greatest Speech Ever - Robert F Kennedy Announcing The Death Of Martin Luther King'

(Thursday, April 4, 1968, 9:30 p.m. EST; during the African-American civil rights movement (1954–1968)) — Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, moved almost to tears by the death of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., told a street corner rally of African-Americans tonight in Indianapolis, Indiana, that they must strive for “love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another.”

Many in the crowd had not heard that King had been assassinated a few hours earlier as he stood on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

“I have some very sad news for all of you, and, I think, sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world; and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.”

Kennedy had gone ahead with plans to attend a campaign rally at 17th and Broadway in the heart of Indianapolis’s African-American ghetto despite fears of riots and concerns for his safety in the wake of King’s assassination.

But instead of a rousing campaign speech that was expected, Kennedy offered brief, impassioned remarks for peace that is considered to be one of the great public addresses of the modern era.

“For those of you who are black — considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible — you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.”

“We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization — black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love.”

And in a rare moment, Kennedy spoke of the 1963 assassination of his brother, President John F. Kennedy.

“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 States. We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times.”

While Kennedy was credited with keeping Indianapolis calm, King’s assassination would spark the greatest wave of social unrest in the U.S. since the Civil War. Riots broke out in 110 U.S. cities, resulting in 45+ deaths, 2,500+ injuries and 15,000+ arrests by the end of May 1968.

Video: '"KENNEDYS DON'T CRY" (1975)' (Apr. 4, 1968, at 1:18:48)