Episode 41: UPHEAVAL (Part 2) 1968 Riots to the Assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy

This episode opens with the country ablaze after riots break out in the aftermath of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  The country struggles with how to cope with the loss of the leader who had preached nonviolent resistance, and who had died such a violent death. 

The one city that did not have a riot the night of the assassination was Indianapolis, Indiana. It was there that Senator Robert Kennedy had planned to address a crowd about his campaign for President. Instead he told them of the death of Dr. King and then expressed his own emotion from the death of his  brother, President John F. Kennedy. Both men had died at the hands of white assassins'. 

These events elevated Senator Kennedy's cause to a higher one and gave him momentum going into the primaries where he would face  Senator Eugene McCarthy, and also now an establishment candidate, the Vice President of the United States, Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey was  gathering delegates from favorite son candidates and endorsements from the party bosses, because  he entered the race to late to be on the primary ballots. 

Listen in as Robert Kennedy campaigns in Oregon and California and as he and McCarthy have a debate. Plus the Republicans have a race too. Kennedy would lose Oregon and Nixon would win it on his side, and that would make California make or break for the candidates. 

It would be a tough campaign but Kennedy would win California. He would come out and excitedly address the crowd, firing them up for the showdown in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Kennedy seemed poised to win.

Then, yet another tragedy would strike. 

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