When the World Trembles, True Leaders Reassure
The language of leadership is truth, humility, and unity in our shared humanity
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
— Robert Ingersoll, 1883
In the annals of American public life, few moments so clearly display the anatomy of leadership in crisis as Robert F. Kennedy’s impromptu remarks in Indianapolis on the night of April 4, 1968.
Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis only hours before, and while cities across the country erupted in flames, Kennedy, standing on the back of a flatbed truck before a mostly Black audience, chose to speak with the humility and vulnerability of shared grief.
He began with the hard truth, acknowledging the terrible fact that Reverend King was dead, struck down by violence.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening, because 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; and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.”1
The silence that followed an initial collective gasp was the silence of a people stunned, yet waiting. Kennedy then reached across the chasm of despair, not with the pieties of a politician, but with words both intimate and vulnerable.
He reminded them that he too had known the wound of violence, that he too had lost a brother to a white man’s bullet.
“For those of you who are black and are tempted to fill with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.”
Out of that raw honesty, he dared to call for something more than anger or vengeance — he called for an effort to understand each other, even in a terrifying moment of uncertainty.
He quoted Aeschylus:
“In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
What Kennedy offered that night was not certainty but truth, not solution but presence. It was leadership as witness, a recognition that fear and sorrow could not be banished, but that they could be borne together. And in that bearing together, the city of Indianapolis found what other cities did not: a reprieve from riot and fire.
The lesson, if we are willing to see it, is that crisis is not a summons to grand speeches or easy assurances, and certainly not an opportunity to stoke fear, anger, and hatred toward a perceived enemy.
A crisis demands honesty,2 humility,3 and the courage4 to meet people where they are — in their grief, their anger, their uncertainty. Kennedy did not control the storm that night, but by speaking from within it, he managed to still its fiercest winds.
Most unnerving, perhaps, is that his shining remains an exception rather than the rule. Too often leaders respond to crisis with the alchemy of euphemism, transforming tragedy into talking points — or worse.5
But history suggests that the true currency of leadership in such moments is not spin, but candor; not the promise of safety, but the solidarity of shared humanity.
I consult with leaders to help their teams be accountable through honesty, data, and collaboration with the Working Together© Leadership & Management System I experienced firsthand, serving under Alan Mulally at Ford Motor Company.
There’s so much to learn,
Further Reading
An Effort to Understand: Hearing One Another (and Ourselves) in a Nation Cracked in Half by David Murray is a series of essays that gives readers a window into everyday American discourse–from the rural backroads to corporate C-suites. A student of history, Murray shows that however great the personal and political divides between us, we have just as deep a desire to connect. Understanding is the bridge between discord and discourse, based on mutual trust and a desire to move forward.
It Was Said, the 2021 Webby Award winner for Best Podcast Series, takes a look back on some of the most powerful and timeless speeches in history. Written and narrated by Pulitzer Prize winning and best-selling historian Jon Meacham, this documentary podcast takes you through generation-defining speeches. Meacham, along with top historians, authors and journalists, offers expert insight and analysis into the origins, the orator, and the context of the times each speech was given, and reflect on why it's important to never forget them.
RFK’s speech in Indianpolis on April 4, 1968::
”Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.
For those of you who are black considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.
We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love.
For those of you who are black and are tempted to fill with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.
But we have to make an effort in the United States. We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times.
My favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote:
Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.
So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King yeah, it's true but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.
We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past, but we and we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's not the end of disorder.
But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.
And let's dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.
Thank you very much.”
Like we’ve seen recently and as this montage shows
Thank you timeless it’s always the right time for your wise and thoughtful writings and thoughts. A breath of fresh clean air that I always look forward too.