Martin Luther King Jr was in Memphis supporting striking sanitation workers... He spoke to the Mason Temple Church about the troubles of the sanitation workers and how the African-American community can rise up and help them. Then he spoke more personally... about how grateful he is to be where he is today in life... http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm
....Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee -- thecry is always the same: "We want to be free."...
...Now we're going to march again, and we've got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be -- and force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God's children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That's the issue. And we've got to say to the nation: We know how it's coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory....
...We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles. We don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, "God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you."...
...Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I'm happy,
tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have
seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!
It was unusual for his speeches to end that way... His friends had to help him to his seat when he was finished.
The next day, in the late afternoon, Martin Luther King was shot and killed. Sen Robert Kennedy was campaigning in Indiana. After stops in South Bend and Muncie he was due to address a group in Indianapolis. His plane landed when he was notified of Dr King's death. His advisors wanted him to cancel the speech. Police said they would be unable to protect him. He wanted to go on. As his motorcade approached the rally the police pulled off. He got to the flatbed truck he was to use as a stage and asked if they'd been told yet. We left that up to you was the answer.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/rfkonmlkdeath.html
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute
or so this evening, because I have some -- some very sad news for all of you --
Could you lower those signs, please? -- 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.
Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between
fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult
day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to
ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.
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.
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.
My favorite poem, my
-- my favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote:
Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the
United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence
and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another,
and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country,
whether they be white or whether they be black.
So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family
of Martin Luther King -- yeah, it's true -- but more importantly
to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love -- a prayer for
understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.
We can do well in this country. We will
have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past, but we --
and we will have difficult times in the
future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness;
and it's not the end of disorder.
But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black
people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality
of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.
And let's dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago:
to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let
us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for
our people.
Thank you very much.
That night cities all across the United States burned from riots. Every major city had some sort of civil disturbances... except one. Indianapolis.
Slainte,
Rob Harrington
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