I don't think I've ever asked you directly where you were when you heard that Dr. King
had been shot.
Well, Mr. President, on April 4th, 1968 I was in Indianapolis, Indiana, campaigning
for Robert Kennedy.
I was organizing a rally, and it was Robert Kennedy that announced to the group that Dr.
King had been assassinated.
I remember the footage.
"I have some very sad news for all of you, and I think, sad news for all of our fellow
citizens, and people who love peace all over the world."
At the spot now, there's a park.
It's called King Kennedy Park.
I have not been back to that spot in 50 years, but I'm going back now.
In the next day or so.
Just to let you know, John was one of my inspirations to get into public life.
So I thought this would be a good opportunity to connect the people who inspired me with
the next generation of young leaders who are going to be doing outstanding things themselves.
I'm sorry about the assassination of Dr. King.
How did you cope with the assassination?
Well, it was a very sad and dark time for me.
He was my leader.
He was my inspiration, but when he was assassinated, I said to myself, "Listen, self.
You cannot get down.
You have got to pick them up and keep going."
And that is what I have tried to do.
The thing I regret more than anything else, is, I probably didn't spend enough time with
him and learning from him.
I thought he would be around a long time.
But it was this sense of urgency that we had, ya know.
Growing up now, I know that a lot of the things that we do and what we say could possibly
come with consequences.
I've seen that through your work as being a president.
Your work as being a congressman.
And also protestors as well.
Seeing Selma, and then also documentaries about what you and the other protestors and
historical figures had to do to make sure we have what we have right now.
Without that, we wouldn't be sitting here having this type of conversation.
So knowing that, I feel motivated to go out and say and do what I believe and, you know,
know that there are maybe some consequences that come with it because I know something
good could come out of it.
In what way can being controversial be a benefit and a disadvantage?
That is a great question.
In 1963, I was 23 years old and I was one of the speakers at the March on Washington.
I spoke — You're the only living speaker left, aren't you?
-- Only one.
Out of the ten people who had spoke, Dr. King spoke number 10, I spoke number six.
And there were some people who suggested that my speech was too extreme, that it was too
radical.
But I thought what I had to say was important to be said.
Black people in the South couldn't register to vote, simply because of the color of their
skin.
In some places, people asked you to count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap, the
number of jelly beans in a jar.
If you are speaking on behalf of social justice, then by definition there's going to be some
controversy because if it wasn't controversial, then somebody would have already fixed it.
Dr. King was controversial, but he studied and fought and crafted what he had to say.
And he knew that when he spoke he was expressing a truth as well as he could know.
On the Freedom Rides in 1961 I had a seat mate, a white gentleman from Connecticut and we
left on a Greyhound bus from Washington D.C., and we arrived in a little town called Rock
Hill, South Carolina to desegregate the waiting room, the "white" waiting room.
And we were attacked by members of the Klan.
They beat us.
They left us lying in a pool of blood.
Many years later, this member of the Klan was in his seventies, and his son was in his
forties, came to my office and said, "Mr. Lewis, I've been a member of the Klan.
I was one of the people who beat you and your seat mate.
I want to apologize.
Will you accept my apology?"
His son started crying.
He started crying.
And I said, "I accept your apology."
He said, "Will you forgive me?"
I said, "I forgive you."
The two of them hugged me.
I hugged them back.
And the three of us, crying.
That's the power of the way of peace and love.
The power, the philosophy and the discipline and they live on in us.
You respect the dignity and the worth of every human being.
Part of what you always want to communicate to young people is that being on the right
side of history isn't always popular.
No.
And it isn't always easy.
And you don't know when things are going to break your way.
You don't know whether your labors will deliver.
I've said to young people especially, I've said to students, I've said: "When you see
something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something.
To say something."
And Dr. King inspired us to do just that.