As a campaign junkie, I find myself fascinating by the political races. I enjoy watching and listening to stump speeches, political commercials, political pundits and hearing how the ‘spin doctors’ try to spin various happenings. Still, it is frustrating to feel that often times we get politicians who use the ‘finger to the wind’ method and simply regurgitate what they feel the majority of the public wants to hear.
I teach a public speaking class and every semester, if time allows, I show a videotape of some of the greatest political speeches in U.S. history. My all time favorite is a speech delivered by Robert Kennedy. The speech is a wonderful example of a work of rhetoric that was not carefully crafted, nor was it given to sway voters. That is one of the things that makes the speech so great.
The year was 1968 and Kennedy had decided to get into the presidential race. His late start in the primaries meant he needed to make up ground. Kennedy was actually scheduled to give a campaign speech in inner city Indianapolis on April 4, 1968. While flying to Indianapolis, word reached Kennedy that Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot. When the plane landed, he was told that King had died. Members of his staff, as well as local police urged him, to cancel the event, for fear of violence. Kennedy refused.
Upon reaching his destination, Kennedy encountered a jovial crowd. He quietly asked the organizers if the crowd knew about the assassination and was told they did not. Kennedy was now speaking, not as a politician but rather as an individual. He asked for the signs to be lowered, the signs that are endorsing his candidacy. Kennedy than came right out and told the crowd that King ‘was shot and killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee’.
Kennedy went on to tell the crowd that by all indications, it was a white man that killed King. Kennedy’s direct appeal to the African American community is very effective. “For those of you who are Black and are tempted to 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.
Kennedy went on to say that what was needed in reaction to this violence is what King himself preached; love, wisdom, compassion towards one another and a feeling of justice towards those that still suffer within our country, regardless of color.
Kennedy concludes by saying that we should work towards what the Greeks wrote about many years earlier: “To tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
For me, what makes this speech even more effective is, upon concluding, the audience actually applauds Kennedy’s words, which in and of itself seems remarkable. Kennedy, for his part, seems very uncomfortable with the applause as he seems to be speaking from the heart, not delivering a stump speech during the campaign. The impact of Kennedy’s speech is also remarkable. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King, there was rioting across every major city in the United States. All but one that is. Only Indianapolis, where Robert Kennedy spoke, was their no rioting.
While hopefully we will never witness such tragedies again, it is that kind of honesty and sincerity that is often lacking from a presidential race. It’s okay to watch and appreciate the inner workings of a political machine, but it is also refreshing to see and hear a sincere speech given.
