The Worst Week
That night, as the news of King's death spread through the blighted parts of the land, there were riots in 110 cities causing 39 deaths and injuring 2,500. But in the city of Indianapolis, where Kennedy had spoken, it was quiet.
Kennedy had trouble sleeping that night. He wandered around the Marriott hotel, stopping in to talk to some young staffers, tucking in a young speechwriter named Jeff Greenfield at about 3 a.m. "You're not so ruthless," said Greenfield. "Don't tell anyone," said Kennedy.
The Kennedy campaign quietly arranged to have King's body flown from Memphis to King's hometown of Atlanta. Before the funeral, young John Lewis took Bobby and Ethel into a darkened church at 1 a.m. to view King's body in an open casket. Kennedy wordlessly crossed himself. "I said to myself, 'Well, we still have Robert Kennedy'," recalled Lewis.
But he didn't. On June 4, on the night he won the California primary, an important milestone on the march to the Democratic convention in Chicago, Robert Kennedy, too, was shot. He died two days later.
CORRECTION (ADDED Nov. 20, 2007): This story originally said that Dr. King gave his final speech at the Masonic Temple in Memphis. In fact, the speech took place at Mason Temple at the headquarters of the Church of God in Christ. NEWSWEEK regrets the error.
© 2007
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Member Comments
Posted By: jiminchina @ 03/09/2008 4:54:54 AM
Comment: I live in China, now, so I don't always get Newsweek in a timely manner. I read this article closely because on April 4, 1968 I lived in Memphis where I worked for the IRS during the day and attended university at night. I belonged to the anti war group SDS and Although I am white I was friendly with the leaders of the Invaders. The description of how Dr. King was murdered is the "official" version. Most people familiar with the event ------
believe that Dr. King was murdered in a plot directed by J.Edgar Hoover. Too many strange things happened in the moments before the shot which killed Dr. King to lead to any other conclusion. James Earl Ray neve
r really got a trial which might have told us more about what really happened.
Posted By: zach55 @ 01/28/2008 9:42:53 PM
Comment: However, do you know more about Dr. King, some one has seen his profile on a senior dating site boomermingle.com, what shall he do on that site?
Posted By: numlock @ 01/26/2008 9:33:31 AM
Comment: By 1968 Dr. King was no longer an "A" list personality. His major contribution at that time was his stance against the Vietnam war, which is not even mentioned in this piece. Hving Dr. King come out against the war was a major contribution to the anti-war cause, greatly appreciated by anti-war demonstrators such as myself. His anit-war stance is rarely mentioned these days. But it was important at the time as most of mid america was still in favor of the war.