A recording of a speech Robert F. Kennedy delivered in Indianapolis following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination is being inducted into the National Recording Registry.
The Library of Congress announced Wednesday that Kennedy’s April 4, 1968, speech is among 25 recordingsbeing tapped for preservation this year because of their cultural and historic importance .
Kennedy learned of King’s death shortly before he arrived at an Indianapolis park for a presidential campaign stop. He shared the news of King’s assassination with a mostly African-American crowd and called for a nonviolent reaction before mentioning the 1963 assassination of his brother, President John F. Kennedy.
The library says Kennedy’s extemporaneous speech recalls “a frightening time of political violence as well as a dream for a better future.”
Kennedy was assassinated two months later.
