[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 12 (Friday, January 19, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E79-E80]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCING THE KENNEDY-KING NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE ESTABLISHMENT ACT 
                                OF 2018

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANDRE CARSON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 19, 2018

  Mr. CARSON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to introduce a bill 
to establish a unit of the National Park System to preserve, protect, 
and interpret for the benefit of present and future generations the 
site of Senator Robert Kennedy's April 4, 1968 speech associated with 
the Kennedy-King Park in Indianapolis, Indiana.
  Some of my colleagues might not be aware that on April 4, 1968, 
Robert Kennedy had scheduled a speech in Indianapolis, Indiana during 
his campaign for the presidency of the United States. However, just 
before he was to give his remarks, Mr. Kennedy was told of the 
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. before the news became 
widely known publicly.
  Mr. Kennedy changed his planned remarks to inform the large crowd 
gathered in the local park of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther 
King, Jr. and called for a nonviolent response to Mr. King's death. Mr. 
Kennedy's speech has been described as one of the greatest addresses of 
the 20th Century as a call for unity and non-violence in a time of 
great unrest. In 1994, a memorial sculpture to honor Mr. Kennedy and 
Dr. King was erected on the park site.
  The site of this impactful speech should be preserved as a national 
treasure and the 50th anniversary of the speech is a fitting time for 
preservation.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in helping to establish the Kennedy-
King National Historic site as a unit of the National Park System in 
Indianapolis, Indiana by supporting this act.
  I include in the Record, the text of Mr. Kennedy's speech:


  full text of robert f. kennedy's speech: indianapolis, april 4, 1968

       ``Ladies and Gentlemen,
       I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this 
     evening, because I have 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

[[Page E80]]

     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 
     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 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.''

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