Early on the morning of June 6, 1968, our nation suffered a terrible, tragic loss.  Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, fresh from winning the California Democratic presidential primary, was gunned down by Sirhan Sirhan.

This loss was made all the more poignant by the Kennedy family history of tragedy.  The nation watched live as President John F. Kennedy had his head blown apart by an assassin’s bullet in 1963.  Years before that, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., son of the famous Kennedy patriarch, died while serving his country.  Many believe that he may have been the greatest of the four Kennedy sons.

And yet, the loss hurt for many more reasons than that.  Just two months and two days before his own life was snuffed out, Bobby Kennedy was about to give a campaign speech in Indianapolis, Indiana, when he was given the shocking and saddening news of Martin Luther King’s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. 

In a moment often overlooked by historians, Kennedy pulled himself together and delivered the news to a largely Black audience.  Then, in the only known public instance where he ever talked about Jack’s assassination, he gave a short, but very personal, account of his anger and sadness about his brother’s murder.  He then pleaded with the emotional and furious crowd to remain calm, and to not riot in the streets, as was happening in other cities all around the nation.

That night, more than any other, was emblematic of the leader America had snatched from it 40 years ago today.  For that night, April 4, 1968, Indianapolis remained quiet – because Bobby Kennedy asked its citizens to stand down.

So much has changed in the last 40 years – mostly for the better.  However, many Americans who lived through the political and social violence of the 1960s, and had to endure watching so many great men and leaders gunned down in the name of intolerance and bigotry, are still scarred from those times.

Gandhi once said, “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.”  Many Americans forget – or don’t know – just how many people died in that turbulent decade as the last vestiges of institutionalized, overt racism fought with every breath, bullet and noose in its arsenal. 

John Fitzgerald Kennedy.  Martin Luther King, Jr.  Malcolm X.  Medgar Wiley Evers (assassinated on the same night that President Kennedy delivered his famous civil rights speech).   James Chaney.  Andrew Goodman.  Michael Schwerner.  Emmett Till.  So many more that weren’t written about or eulogized or mourned en masse as this nation struggled in that decade to live out the true meaning of its creed.  All of these people were slaughtered in the name of preserving the ugly stain of racism on this nation’s fabric.  Let them never be forgotten.

And yet, despite the history and histrionics of hatred, we see that Gandhi’s final phase is coming true in our continued racial evolution.  For three days ago, a Black man was able to say, “I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States of America” – and have a standing-room-only crowd of mostly white people cheer for him with every breath they had.

Today, though, is a day to remember a good man who, but for senseless hatred, could have become a great man.  America is becoming the country you thought it could be, Bobby.  The only shame is that it took lives such as yours in the process. 

Thank you, Robert Francis Kennedy, for all that you did – and all that you wanted to do.