Robert Kennedy's Eulogy for MLK Resonates This Week

'What we need in the United States is not division'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 8, 2016 5:27 PM CDT

In the wake of the shooting death of two black men at the hands of police officers and the deaths of five police officers shot by a sniper this week, many people are sharing Robert Kennedy's 1968 speech eulogizing Martin Luther King Jr., Time reports. The speech, considered one of the greatest of the past 100 years, is a call for unity in the wake of King's assassination. “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," Kennedy says. He delivered the speech five years after his brother, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated a few blocks from Thursday's shooting in Dallas and two months before he himself was fatally shot.

"These words resonate tonight more than any," Newsday quotes one person who shared the speech on Twitter. "It's been 48 years since this great man's speech, yet his sentiments are still apropos today," another person tweeted. Kennedy's speech can be watched here. (More police shooting stories.)

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