Forty Years Ago Today
Friday, April 4, 2008
Forty years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. The speech Robert Kennedy made announcing the tragic news to a crowd in Indianapolis has always affected me. The audio of that moment is just incredible. From the beginning when you hear Kennedy asking someone if the crowd already knows about what happened, to the gasp from the crowd when they hear the news, to the beautiful speech Kennedy gives - presumably on-the-fly - in an effort to comfort the crowd and put the tragedy in a broader context, the moment is hard to describe, especially when one knows that just a few months following this speech, Robert Kennedy is himself gunned down.
If you haven't heard it, or it's been a while, here it is:
Today also makes me think back on something I've put a lot of thought into over the past year, I guess.
I've had this picture bookmarked for months and occasionally look at it and think of how this image would play in today's media if someone, say Barack Obama, were to appear somewhere with an entourage like this:
If you don't recognize it, that's MLK Jr. giving his "I Have a Dream" speech. There are times when I think we've come incredibly far, and for the most part I do think we have, but every now and again I'm stunned to see how far we still have to go.
Update: AmericaBlog posted this clip of King's final speech.
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