The Effect of the Spontaneous Speech - Robert Kennedy MLK Eulogy

Senator Robert Kennedy, while on a campaign trail in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 4, 1968, was told that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated the same day in Memphis, Tennessee. King was a major leading figure in the civil rights movement, and the news was important enough that instead of giving his campaign speech, Kennedy gave a speech regarding King’s death while standing on the back of a flatbed truck. After the news, the crowd was distraught, but more than that, they may have been bitter and filled with hatred towards white people. In this speech, Kennedy consoles his audience after hearing the news of King’s death and urges them to stay united instead of being bitter or wanting revenge. He does this by contrasting two different futures that the country can take, sharing beliefs and values with the audience, and using repetitive sentence structures. 

In the third paragraph, Kennedy juxtaposes two different futures that the audience and people of America can choose for the country. One future is where the country is more divided, with “black people staying amongst blacks, and white people staying amongst whites” with “hate toward one another.” The other future, and the more positive and aspired one, is where the country will replace violence with “an effort to understand” and have “kindness and love instead” of hatred. By giving these two distinct options side by side, the audience is forced to consider which of these they would prefer, and the vast majority would prefer the second reality. Although many people may have been filled with hatred towards white people because one of them killed King, Kennedy argues that everyone must follow what King did himself, and try to understand and come together. He does not want the country to break into chaos and violence but instead wants to make sure that everyone makes an effort to be kind and loving.

After finishing this statement, Kennedy proceeds to connect with the audience through shared beliefs in the fourth paragraph. He does this by saying that even if many black people may not “trust all white people because of the injustice of such an act,” Kennedy also has “the same kind of feeling” because “someone in my family" was killed “by a white man, too.” Kennedy does not try to separate himself from the black people and their emotions, but instead shares their feelings and relates to them because King was someone in his family too and he feels betrayed that a fellow white man had killed him. To console his audience, Kennedy connected to them to be more relatable and show how his feeling was similar to how everyone else was feeling. His response was no different than theirs, even if he is white and they are black. He developed a sense of unity and trust with the audience because he had the same feelings as them, and shows that not all white people are the enemy of black people, but instead share the same sentiment and feelings.

He then goes on to use repetitive sentence structure to describe what has and what will happen in the country in paragraph ten in order to assure the audience that the situation will improve because it is what most people wish for. Kennedy starts off by asserting that they “will have difficult times” in the future and that “It is not the end of violence...It is not the end of disorder” to show that although unity is desired, there will be obstacles. He comforts the audience by saying that “we can do well in this country” before this repetition to show that even in the face of these obstacles, the country will prevail and get past them. He then asserts that most white and black people in the country “want to improve our lives” and “want fairness for all human beings” in paragraph 11 to show that despite these difficulties, the desire for unity still runs rampant and will not falter from any of these problems. All of these quotes convince the audience of the strength of the country and their ability to change their morals and ideas. The repeated sentence structure underscores the importance of unity that King wanted and shows that even though there will be violence, there will not only be violence and violence will not be the tool used to gain freedom and equality. He repeats the phrase “they want” to show that many white and many black people long for equality, and it is not a one-sided wish. By emphasizing the shared wish, Kennedy consoles his audience with the idea that even though King has died, his ideals and wishes will live on and come to fruition.

By keeping the ideology of love instead of hate, Kennedy was able to console his audience after hearing the news of King’s death by illustrating two futures the country can take, sharing similar emotions and connecting to the audience, and used repetitive sentence structure to highlight the difficulties that will come when the country pursues their wish for equality and freedom. These choices consoled the audience after hearing the news of King’s death, but they also reassured them that their wish for equality is shared by many and that even without King, their wish will be granted.