, Columnist
Bobby Kennedy’s Big Omission: White Racism
His short speech in 1968 after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was beautiful. It was also inadequate.
Robert Kennedy at Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral in April 1968.
Photographer: Archive Photos/Getty Images
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With widespread grief and protests over the killing of George Floyd, the U.S. is badly in need of national leadership. Ideally, the president, or someone with a great deal of stature and trust, would provide it.
In an analogous time, Robert F. Kennedy did exactly that, with what is generally considered one of the most moving speeches in U.S. history. Like the Gettysburg Address, which it resembles, it is elegiac — and short. And as with Lincoln’s great speech, every word rings true.