If you were born before 1968 what do you remember when Robert Kennedy or Martin Luther King was killed?

Answer 1

Martin Luther King was killed in April of 1968. I lived in the greater Detroit area, where the prior year was a catastrophic riot. It was so bad that 40 years later, you can still see the scars. When King was murdered, we were afraid of another big blow-up. Fortunately, it did not happen.

My most vivid memory was Robert F. Kennedy climbing up on a makeshift platform, talking to a large group of mostly blacks (in the midst of his presidential campaign) speaking with them and listening to their concerns. The fact that he listened seemed to calm the group down and violence in whatever city it was he was in was averted. I thought it very brave of him.

Then in June of 1968, when RFK was murdered, I remember getting up in the morning and hearing he had been shot. Then we sat by the TV most of the day seeing reports of how maybe he might pull through. As the day went on, the TV network's medical reporter seemed to think that every hour that passed was good news. The longer time went on, the better chance for recovery.

Then when he died, it was such a shock. We had been getting more and more hopeful as time went on.

I remember being in almost despair for a while. If our nation couldn't protect these men, what hope was there? Being young at the time, I did recover from the shock. But I think it made me grow up a little faster politically than I might have otherwise. Though I would gladly trade some of that growing up to have those two events not happen.

Wow, what a walk down memory lane. Some of the pain is still there.

Answer 2

I was born in 1959, so only 9 but I remember both days. When RFK was shot my friend a year older called my in the middle of the night, I'd never got a call after 8pm or so before and it woke up the whole family, of course, and my parents were upset and had to explain who he was.
When King was shot I was in Los Angeles that day, near UCLA. A tremendous amount of shouting, honking horns, people on the street. I saw one guy walking down the block by himself not saying anything, just dragging a flag on the sidewalk. I won't ever forget those 2 days. I actually remember the day JFK was killed also, even though I was only a tiny kid. He had come to give the commencement speech at San Diego State College, and my pre-school was on the motorcade route, we all went over to the apartment balcony next door for a view, I remember all the police motorcycles and big black cars, so when he was killed 6 months later, I knew who he was. We were sent home from the pre-school, that had never happened before. I remember watching my mother watch TV, which we never did in the daytime, and how hot it was that day, but we could not go outside, I guess it was considered bad manners for kids to be playing and having fun that day.

Answer 3

I was living outside the country when JFK was assasinated, so it was more difficult to grasp the details of the situation. I was at home when Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were killed. I remember feeling a great sadness for all of us.

Answer 4

In reference to Robert Kennedy I remember the shock that people had. How could this happen again? In reference to Martin Luther King I remember my mother coming into my room and telling me but I wasn't sure who he was. After all I was young.

Answer 5

I was sitting with two guys out of my squad and a guy came over and said "The MF's killed Martin". That was the first time that the fact I was white and they weren't made a difference. I kept wanting to apologize. It felt very strange to actually care that someone was dead. We were near a little village named Ankhe, in the central highlands of Vietnam.

When RFK was killed I was in a hospital in Nha Trang recovering from wounds and dealing with losing most of my men in an ambush, so didn't hear about it until I got back to the states and it was kind of old news by then.

When JFK was shot, I was on my way to my high school Chemistry class and a friend of mine was shouting something about 'They shot Kennedy." Since he was a real goofball, I didn't believe it but learned it was the truth after getting to class.

Answer 6

Was around for John Kennedy, Robert ,Martin Luther King and more. I remember JFK's death more clearly. It was announced in my fifth grade class and was covered on TV in the classroom. At that time in history, The Beetles and the killing of JFK took up most of the news.

Was also around when Cassius Clay hadn't changed his name yet. Actually, I was around when Eisenhower was president.

Answer 7

There were attempts on Dr. King's life well before 1968. His house was bombed back in 1956! You can read a bit about it here, at the FirstMention research site:

http://firstmention.com/martinlutherking.aspx

Answer 8

Hello,

I remember it well; I was in grade nine at the time and I recall our school principal saying that she'd like to see his assassin dismembered piece by piece. She was really choked.

Ironically I remember Kennedy speaking out in April that he was appalled at the coward who had shot Martin Luther King and where was this nation going.

Cheers,

Michael Kelly

Answer 9

I was born in 64, too young to remember.

Answer 10

Yes. It seemed like anyone of public value was a target. A very dark time.