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Contact: Matt Lloyd, Congressman Mike Pence, 202-226-4379
WASHINGTON, April 3 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Congressman Mike Pence gave the following speech today on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in remembrance of the speech Sen. Robert Kennedy gave in Indianapolis the day Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
"I was honored to join a bipartisan delegation just a few hours ago here in the Capitol where we were accompanied by Martin Luther King, III. We gathered to remember a day that tens of millions of Americans will pause to remember tomorrow. That was the day that saw the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. forty years ago.
"I rise today as someone who, as a nine-year-old boy, was deeply inspired by the example of Dr. King and as a nine-year-old boy who was shaped by those tragic events.
"But I also rise today as a Hoosier, and as a Congressman representing Muncie, IN, because it may not be known to many, Mr. Speaker, but both Indiana and Muncie, IN, in particular, played a small role in the unfolding drama of that day, April 4, 1968. And I will borrow generously from an article written by Nick Werner recently in the Muncie Star Press as I reflect on that connection.
"Muncie helped shape history after the King assassination because it was in Muncie and at Ball State University where Sen. Robert Kennedy was speaking. He was speaking at the men's gym which is now Irving Gym. He was running for President of the United States and it was there, after his speech as he was moving through the crowd, that historians recall and record that he first learned of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"And as he went to the Muncie Airport and traveled from the Muncie Airport to Indianapolis, Robert Kennedy would prepare what--for all the world--appeared to be an impromptu speech but one that perhaps he had been writing all of his life; a speech that he would deliver to a stunned crowd in Indianapolis that night. And it was a speech that I rise today to remember.
"It was humbling to me, despite our differences on philosophy and politics, to sit today on the same row with Sen. Ted Kennedy as we remembered the tragic events of that day.
"Robert Kennedy stood before a largely black audience at an outside park in Indianapolis and he spoke these words: '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 Dr. Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, TN.'
"As Nick Werner wrote, 'The crowd gasped and screamed, but they remained fixed on Kennedy as he continued speaking, condemning violence and lawlessness.' He said, and I add, '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.'
"But he added, '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.' He asked those gathered to 'return home, to say a prayer for the family of Dr. Martin Luther King, yeah that'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.'
"After he spoke these words, rioting would break out in more than 100 cities across the United State but Indianapolis was peaceful.
"Sen. Robert Kennedy would go on to a tragic end of his own, but I rise today as an American shaped by the courage in the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and I will remember tomorrow – with gratitude – his example.
"And I will also say very humbly that the words of Robert Kennedy are as true today as ever and that Muncie, IN, and the state of Indiana will always be proud of the small role we played as a backdrop to those historic and tragic events.
"May the words of Sen. Robert Kennedy and the example of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. continue to inspire our nation to aspire to a more perfect Union."
