Description
In this column written for The St. Louis American, Bayard Rustin reacts directly to the shooting of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles just two months after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. Rustin mourns both men, explaining that they were unique because they could guide angry young people and turn their frustration into a peaceful demand for an open, fair society. He writes that the world is full of unrest because young people are rightly rebelling against outdated leaders who ignore the needs of a new generation. Rustin notes that both King and Kennedy fully understood the physical dangers they faced for challenging society, quoting Kennedy's specific belief that "man was not made for safe havens."
The column breaks down the exact things that bound both leaders together: a shared fight to end poverty in a wealthy nation, a focus on international peace, and a total rejection of violence as a tool for social change. Rustin warns the public that killing these nonviolent leaders leaves a highly dangerous empty space in American politics. He says this empty space creates a "no man's land" that hateful right-wing groups and desperate, angry crowds will quickly rush to fill. Rustin concludes with a direct warning about the future of American democracy, stating that with every murder, the metaphorical bill for social justice gets higher and that America must pay this moral debt immediately before things spiral out of control.
Historical Context
The political climate of June 1968 was a chaotic crisis point for the nation. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles right after winning the California Democratic presidential primary. This shock occurred exactly 62 days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, which had already triggered violent uprisings and burning streets in over one hundred American cities. The sudden loss of both men back-to-back completely broke the spirit of the civil rights movement, leaving millions of people feeling that peaceful, democratic change was no longer possible.
This double tragedy struck at the exact moment the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was running the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C., where thousands of impoverished Americans were living in a muddy shantytown called "Resurrection City" on the National Mall. Kennedy had been a major champion for this campaign, and his death left the poor and anti-war activists completely isolated without a powerful voice in the upcoming presidential election. By pointing directly to this crisis, Rustin's column captures the exact moment when the political door closed on mid-1960s liberalism. This political vacuum opened the way for conservative candidate Richard Nixon to win the White House later that year on a strict "law and order" platform that focused on cracking down on protests rather than fixing poverty.
Rustin, Bayard. "Bayard Rustin Tells It Like It Is: Now Kennedy: The Bill Mounts Higher." The St. Louis American, June 13, 1968, p. 8.
