On March 16, 1968, Robert Kennedy declared his candidacy for president of the United States, saying "I do not run for the Presidency merely to oppose any man but to propose new policies."  Just 12 days later, on March 28, he flew into Weir Cook Airport in Indianapolis to file as a presidential candidate in the Indiana primary to be held on May 7.   Three days later, Sunday, March 31, at 9:00 p.m., President Lyndon Johnson spoke on television for about 35 minutes about the Vietnam War and then shocked the nation by announcing "I shall not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president."  Johnson and Kennedy met at the White House on April 3, the day before Kennedy came to Muncie. 

So when Robert F. Kennedy made his trip to Indiana to campaign on April 4, the situation was much different than on his earlier visit:

• Johnson was no longer a candidate;
• Bombing in Vietnam had been temporarily halted;
• With Johnson out and bombing halted, Vietnam was not as large of an issue in some respects;
• Eugene McCarthy had become a formidable candidate, winning 56% of the vote in Wisconsin in an easy victory over Johnson;
• With Johnson out, Vice President Hubert Humphrey might enter the race.
  

This is the scenario that Kennedy faced when he arrived in Indiana on April 4, giving a speech at Notre Dame in the morning, and then arriving in Muncie to speak on the Ball State campus.   In some ways, Robert Kennedy was following in his slain brother's footsteps by visiting Muncie.  John F. Kennedy had spoke here during his 1960 campaign for the presidency.  Robert Kennedy's stop in Muncie was part of his campus tour; he was scheduled to spend five days in Indiana and his brother Edward Kennedy was to campaign in the state for six days as well.  Plans called for the entire Kennedy family to visit Indiana before the May 7 primary.   For example, Joan Kennedy, wife of Senator Edward Kennedy, visited Anderson several times; Eunice Shriver, Kennedy's sister, was in Muncie; and the Kennedy matriarch, Mrs. Rose Kennedy, came to the state with Edward Kennedy.  In addition, Kennedy Press Secretary Pierre Salinger visited Muncie. 

Local attorney Marshall Hanley was instrumental in bringing Robert Kennedy to Muncie. (Earl Conn also played an important role and I will talk more about that later.)  Hanley was the 10^th District coordinator for the Kennedy campaign, a position he had also held during John Kennedy's presidential campaign.  He had organized John Kennedy's visits to Muncie and Ball State eight years earlier.  In fact, JFK stayed at Hanley's house near campus.  

Bill Foley was the advance man sent to handle arrangements for Robert Kennedy's visit.  According to Earl Conn, Foley liked Emens but also liked the Men's Gym as a site for Kennedy's speech.  He was concerned though about filling all the seats in the Gym. He was assured that the seats on the second floor could be curtained off if necessary.  However, it became a moot point because the Gym was packed for the speech, with an estimated 9,000 people filling all the seats and the entire playing floor, after waiting for hours for Kennedy's appearance.  Several hours before his arrival, hundreds of students had arrived to claim choice seats.  According to one account, the earliest to arrive was a young lady who "came in at about 12.30 p.m., about six hours before Kennedy arrived. 

Kennedy was running about 30 minutes late (not an unusual situation for Kennedy, and for politicians today for that matter).  A crowd of about 700 jammed into the Johnson Field Terminal to greet him when he arrived at about 5:40 p.m.   In addition, hundreds of other people yelled to him from parked cars as he left the airport in an open convertible.  The Muncie Star described the scene this way:  "The candidate was bareheaded, showing his famous long hair as usual.  He abandoned the topcoat which he wore in earlier appearances in South Bend, but the Muncie weather was overcast with a few sprinkles of rain as he arrived.  Ethel Kennedy sat beside her husband as he pulled away in a fire-red convertible.  Three buses with press personnel and six official cars followed to the gym."  All of this activity took place in less than five minutes, according to reports. 

According to the Muncie Evening Press, Kennedy's advance men had arranged for him to "enter the gym through a door farthest from the speaker's platform so he could work his way through the frenzied crowd, rather than take an easier route through a nearer door" because "he likes it this way."

Among those on the platform with Kennedy and his wife were Robert Stewart, Delaware County Democratic county chairman, Mayor Paul Cooley, Mrs. ArmeNa Rahe, former vice county chairman, and Marshall Hanley, who introduced Kennedy.

Kennedy spoke for 34 minutes and took questions for another 21 minutes.  He was interrupted for applause 32 times.  Kennedy's speech was devoted to domestic issues and to potential international problems that might occur after Vietnam.  He talked passionately about hunger and poverty in America and the rest of the world. 

Concerning Kennedy's speaking style, Lester and Irene David in their book Bobby Kennedy:  The Making of a Fold Hero wrote the following:

"He wasn't very good at telling the slick one-liners his speechwriters invented for his appearances at large functions.  Audiences would titter dutifully, but it was only when he became serious that they were captured.  In small towns and rural areas, he abandoned stand-up comedy routines entirely and, with his informality and wry humor, developed an open hones sense of community with the people."

I think some of that is evident in these tapes, especially during the question and answer period. 

Earl Conn served as the Delaware County chairman of the Kennedy for President organization, faculty advisor for the Ball State Kennedy for President Club, and was intimately involved in bringing Kennedy to Muncie.  Attesting to the size and enthusiasm of the crowd at the event in a March 23, 1969, article for the Muncie Star, Conn, who had the assignment of escorting Ethel Kennedy, wrote

According to the report in the April 5 edition of the Muncie Star, "It took about 10 minutes to get the senator off the platform and two press tables toppled in the process."   Another article had the headline "Three Injured in Crowd Melee."  The story relates that "at least three persons were injured in the aftermath of Sen. Robert Kennedy's speech at Ball State Thursday after students mobbed the senator as he was leaving Men's Gym."  A coed injured her left foot.  A 30-year old woman from Eaton fell and was trampled in the crowd surrounding the motorcade. She suffered a bruised left leg and possible wrist sprain while trying to protect her two children.  A young lady was slightly injured when she was trapped underneath one of the tables that collapsed as Kennedy was being ushered out. 

Kennedy stood in the back of a convertible as it drove through crowds along Neely Avenue.  The caravan then sped up going down Riverside and the top was put up because of the cold night air.  When they got to the airport, a crowd of supporters were waiting behind fences.   

There are different versions of how Kennedy heard about Martin Luther King being shot.  Several books about Robert Kennedy state that he heard about the assassination on the plane while flying to Indianapolis.  The April 5^th article in the Star related a different version.  It stated that "The senator had apparently heard on the way to the airport about the shooting….One youth at the terminal fence asked ‘Did you hear about Martin Luther King?' ‘Was he shot?' asked Kennedy, brought up short.  ‘Yes.'  ‘Was he killed?' Kennedy asked again.  ‘No, he's in critical condition,' the youth said.'  The senator shook his head and walked on."

However, according to local attorney Marshall Hanley, he told Kennedy about King's assassination.  Earl Conn quoted Hanley's recollection in the 1969 Star article:

"We came up to the plane in a car driven by Police Chief Carey.  Sen. Kennedy and his wife got along with Bill Barry [the FBI agent serving as Kennedy's security guard] and went over to the airport fence to shake hands with people lined up there.  I heard the news flash over the radio and told the senator as he came to the airplane ramp….He seemed stunned and dropped his head. ‘Is he dead?' he asked.  I said I didn't know and then he went on up the ramp to the plane."

According to a Star article published the day after Kennedy's visit, "as Kennedy boarded the plane, he threw his arm around Hanley's shoulder….‘Goodbye, Marshall,' he said, and then ran up the steps waving."

From Muncie, the Kennedy entourage flew back to Indianapolis that night where Robert Kennedy delivered what many call his greatest speech, announcing to a predominantly African American audience that Martin Luther King had been assassinated.  Discarding the themes of his earlier speeches, Kennedy addressed the crowd for about two minutes, speaking entirely about King's death and its meaning for the nation and the world, ending by asking for prayers for King, his family and "for our country." 

Looking back now, listening to the tapes and viewing the video of Kennedy's speech at Ball State, there is a question raised by a Black student and answered by Kennedy that seems almost a premonition of the speech to come later that night after the horrific events of the day.  The student asks, "Your speech implies that you are placing a great faith in white America.  Is that faith justified?"  Kennedy answered, "Yes" and added that "faith in black America is justified, too" although he said there "are extremists on both sides." 

From this historic and tragic day, we fast forward to a just over a month later: primary day, May 7.  Kennedy won Indiana's democratic primary with 42% of the vote compared to 31% for Indiana Governor Roger Branigin (an uncommitted favorite son leaning towards Hubert Humphrey) and 27% for Eugene McCarthy.  Newspapers reported that Kennedy "swept to a solid victory that projected him to the top level of Democratic presidential nomination contenders" in his "first test at the polls since his belated entry into the race."  Kennedy said that he had entered the Indiana primary against the advice of many who said that favorite son Branigin was unbeatable.  It was estimated that almost a million voters participated in the Indiana primary.

(A fellow named Nixon won on the republican side.)

Kennedy's visit to Muncie obviously had a positive effect for him with Delaware County voters.  He received 40% of the votes cast in the county, with Branigin taking 31% and McCarthy with 29%.  Delaware County democrats cast 16,522 votes and Kennedy received 6,542, Branigin 5,289, and McCarthy 4,691.  (That Nixon fellow ran unopposed on the republican side and received 11,674 votes in Delaware County.)   

Kennedy had also won in a Ball State student mock election on April 24.  He received 1,129 votes from a total 3,639 cast in Ball State's CHOICE '68 mock presidential primary, which was conducted by Time-Life, Inc. and tabulated by Univac.  Republican candidate Richard Nixon came in second with 879 votes and Kennedy's democratic opponent Eugene McCarthy received 762 votes.  However, Burris High School had a different result in their mock Democratic National Convention:  the Burris students chose McCarthy on the second ballot; Humphrey came in second and Kennedy finished third. 

[As an aside, McCarthy did appear here also, at Emens Auditorium, on April 24, the day of the mock election at Ball State.]

And now we fast-forward again, to June 5, 1968, just one month and day after Kennedy's visit to Muncie.  The headline in the Muncie Evening Press read "Bullet Taken From Kennedy's Brain After Gunman Shoots."  Robert Kennedy had just won the California primary and made his victory speech before about 2,000 supporters in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, ending with "On to Chicago and let's win there."  It was just a few minutes after midnight.  As we all know, while leaving the hotel, through the kitchen, he was shot by Sirhan Sirhan. 

In an article in the Evening Press, published before they knew that Robert Kennedy was dead, Muncie residents who had been involved with Kennedy during his visit expressed their shock.   Muncie Police officers, who had been assigned to guard Kennedy, recalled how his staff wouldn't permit the police to come between him and the crowd and how Kennedy always wanted direct contact with the crowds.  

Muncie mayor Paul Cooley said, "My first thought is, what effect is this going to have on the people….I hope it's not a conspiracy, and I hope we're not returning to the law of the jungle."  Marshall Hanley had watched the returns on television until 1 a.m. and then went to bed, only to wake up about 3 a.m., just before the shooting occurred, Muncie time.   He said, "The deepest tragedies seem to fall on those most dearly loved…Bobby Kennedy is a man of great heart and great courage." 

Epilogue

Fast forward one more time to a year later:

A memorial program honoring Robert Kennedy and commemorating his visit to Ball State a year earlier was held on April 10, 1969, in Emens Auditorium.  The featured speaker was Paul Schrade, western director of United Auto Workers and co-chairman of the New Democratic Coalition, who had directed Kennedy's California campaign and was among five other people who had suffered bullet wounds from the shooting.  I'll end with Mr. Schrade's words from that speech:  "As we must remember what Robert F. Kennedy stood for in his life, it is up to us to dedicate ourselves to the ideals for which he stood."

JBS:  2004