Original subtitles

- ♪ You say you want a revolution ♪

♪ Well, you know all chanting: Peace now!

- ♪ We all want to change the world ♪

- We're tired of full-time jobs

for part-time income.

- ♪ You tell me that it's evolution ♪

♪ Well, you know

- I know nonviolence will work.

- ♪ We all want to change the world ♪

- Is this what you want to do? Destroy the country?

- I'll destroy a whole bunch of y'all.

- ♪ But when you talk about destruction ♪

- The American Embassy is under siege.

- ♪ Don't you know that you can count me out ♪

- The country's going to get a new President next January.

- ♪ Don't you know it's gonna be all right ♪

- We are planning today new marches.

- ♪ All right - Not knowing where they are

is the worst. Just hoping to stay alive, day to day.

- ♪ All right - I will not accept

the nomination of my party for another term

as your President. - ♪ All right

- No question about it, this was a bombshell, politically.

- ♪ All right - I don't plan to drop out.

♪ All right - I think it'll be

a good thing for the party.

- We want to deal with our own problems,

within our own country, and we want peace

in Vietnam. - ♪ All right

- Those who got out of hand the other day--

- Chaos has just broken out downtown.

- Have now been talked with

sufficiently, to guarantee that nothing will take place

in terms of violence.

I feel that we can still have a nonviolent demonstration

and that we will have a nonviolent demonstration

here in Memphis.

The important thing is that we are not gonna be stopped

by mace or junctions or any other methods

the city plans to use, and I think they're making

a grave mistake, because this would bring much more support

to the movement.

- There had been violence the last time he marched.

So King comes back to Memphis to prove that he can lead

a peaceful demonstration.

- We feel that this is something we have to do.

The nation needs it, the movement needs it,

above all, the poor people of our country

need a dramatic movement... - There is a noticeable change

in the mood in Memphis.

People are concerned, and King gives his speech

to galvanize his supporters.

- All we say to America, is be true

to what you said on paper.

- There's an injunction against marching,

but King is very, very defiant in that speech.

He's saying, they're still gonna march.

- Somewhere, I read

of the freedom of assembly.

Somewhere I read,

of the freedom of speech.

Somewhere I read,

that the greatness of America is the right to protest

for rights.

We've got some difficult days ahead.

But it really doesn't matter with me now,

because I've been to the mountaintop.

And I have seen

the promised land.

I may not get there with you,

but I want you to know the night

that we as a people will get to the promised land.

- The next day, we had breakfast that morning,

all of us did, together.

We were just talking about the next march.

- Toward the end of the day, Doctor King is out

on the balcony, and he sees Jesse down there,

and James Bevel.

All of a sudden, there was a bolt.

148 North...

- We heard, what sounded just like a firecracker,

it was loud, real-- a real loud shot.

And, uh, I heard somebody holler, "Oh Lord."

And then I turned around, and went back to where he was,

and he had fallen backwards.

- Police put out a bulletin for a young white man

who witnesses saw flee immediately

after the shooting.

- Um...

God knows this is the most tragic thing

that has ever happened in-- in my life.

It was so sudden, and so powerful.

He couldn't have known what hit him.

I remember Reverend Abernathy saying,

"Back up, back up, my dearest friend has been shot."

I got up and went to the phone, and called Mrs. King.

Said, "Mrs. King, Dr. King I think has been shot,

in the shoulder, I think." I couldn't say what I saw.

- His wife was notified in Atlanta tonight,

told only that he had been shot in the shoulder,

to spare her any further concern and alarm,

as she flew back to, uh, Memphis.

She--uh, whether she has arrived there or not,

we have not been advised.

- Go right ahead.

- Do they know about Martin Luther King?

- That is the night that Robert Kennedy gave what is

one of the more remarkable speeches any politician

has ever given.

- Ladies and gentlemen,

I have some very sad news for all of you,

and, I think, 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.

Then the city was on fire.

- Washington, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, New York--

these are just a few of the cities

in which the Negro anguish expressed itself

in violent destruction.

- ♪ Take my hand

♪ Oh

♪ I've been

♪ Through the storm

♪ Lord

♪ On through the night

♪ I want you to lead me on

♪ Oh

- For my parents' generation,

King was the dream.

And then he's gone.

They were mourning the loss of the man,

but also what he represented for them,

and what they hoped he would be able to achieve

for their children.

- We've lost something, and we feel it deeply. We feel it.

- I don't think Americans should mourn

Martin Luther King. I think they should mourn themselves.

- The 40th annual Academy Award Show!

- Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Last Monday was the 40th anniversary

of the Academy Awards.

- The Academy Awards were,

moved because of Martin Luther King's assassination.

- This has been a fateful week,

in the history of our nation.

We join with men of goodwill everywhere,

in paying our profound respects

to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It was his work

that brought about the increasing awareness

of all men,

that we must unite in compassion

in order to survive.

- The Best Picture nominees that year

were genuinely controversial, and influential movies

like "Bonnie and Clyde," "The Graduate,"

"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,"

and "In the Heat of the Night."

Both trying to address racism

and race relations.

- Virgil, that's a funny name for a nigger boy that comes

from Philadelphia, what do they call you up there?

- They call me Mr. Tibbs.

- "In The Heat of the Night," Sidney Poitier was playing

a black man who was strong,

who was smart,

who was decisive.

The movie takes place in the Deep South.

- Let me understand this,

you two came here

to question me?

- We were just trying to clarify some of the evidence.

Was Mr. Colbert ever in this greenhouse?

Say, last night about midnight.

- This is 1968,

you don't have black men hitting white men in movies

and getting away with it, and living

to tell the tale, anyway. And he does.

- There was a time,

when I could have had you shot.

- Sydney Poitier completely holds his own, not just

as an actor, but as the character, Virgil Tibbs.

At its core, it's a murder-mystery,

but it's also about the way America's starting to change.

- The winner is: "In the Heat of the Night,"

Walter Murch.

- In south Vietnam today, about 20,000 allied troops

are pushing through on the ground

to Khe Sanh, the outpost held by 5,000 marines

and now accessible only by air.

- All of this is bound for Khe Sanh.

Tons of ammunition and supplies,

to be parachuted in to the Marines tomorrow.

- Have you been here 2 1/2 months since

the heavy shelling's been going on?

- I got here-- I arrived at Khe Sanh

on the 19th of January, and we got hit the 21st,

so it's been a long 2 1/2 months.

- President Johnson was absolutely determined

to hold the Marine base at all cost.

- More than 200 Marines have died here,

800 seriously wounded.

- There was never the large clashing of forces

they had expected, but the Marines were subjected

to just a brutal onslaught.

- In the spring of '68,

you've got the most violent period of the entire war.

The United States ramps up the use of military force,

ramps up airstrikes.

About 500 Americans a week

are being killed. And of course,

the backdrop for all of this is the draft.

- No one knows when peace will come.

And so for all the young men facing the draft,

it is not an easy time to be a young man in America.

- I feel that every citizen, every male citizen,

has an obligation to his country.

- I don't see serving in the Armed Forces

as meaningful in any way.

all chanting: Hell no, we won't go!

- The draft just really mobilized young people.

How many different ways can you say,

"Hell no, we won't go"?

- ♪ There's a voice

♪ Within me saying

- My name is Chris Brown, from Jersey.

- Michael Dover, New York.

- Joe Hutchins, New York City.

- ♪ Carry on

- So far, since the draft resistance movement

began last year, between 2,000 and 3,000 young men

have burned their draft cards, or returned them

to the federal government.

Another 4,000 to 6,000 have fled to Canada,

to avoid the draft.

- It is just another example

of American youth saying to adults:

"Your values are not my values."

- The mantra of that generation is that

you don't have to believe anything

that your parents told you.

Because look what they got us into in Vietnam.

You had a generation that was willing to question authority.

- We had a feeling of us against them,

you know, us against the government.

- Now I'll do a song that I wrote against

the American military. A song called:

"I Ain't Marching Anymore."

- Phil Ochs had a song

that said, "Always the old, who lead us into war.

"It's always the young who fall."

- ♪ It's always the old, to lead us to the wars ♪

♪ It's always the young to fall ♪

- We were aware of all that, you know.

Why would they send us somewhere

and make us kill somebody?

We're not gonna do that. So we sang anti-war songs,

- ♪ Saint Peter said, from Vietnam, I can tell ♪

♪ I know you'll go to Heaven, son ♪

♪ You served your time in hell ♪

- We are messing ourselves up, shows in many ways.

It shows in the racial hatred in this country.

It shows in the fact, that at this very moment,

500,000 of our friends and our brothers

are killing and dying in a jungle 10,000 miles away.

And it shows in those cards we all carry in our pockets.

Well, I'm finished. I'm a free man today.

- By 1968, colleges were kind of the front line place,

where much of the protest of this period plays out.

- You saw the creation of SDS:

Students for a Democratic Society,

which organized activists

college campus by college campus.

- In the spring of 1968, I found myself the chairman

of the Columbia chapter

of the Students for a Democratic Society.

We are interested in Columbia, we would like to change it,

we would like to make it free of these racist elements.

- The central issue was Columbia expanding

into black neighborhoods, and destroying them

to build more of Columbia.

- Also, Columbia was involved in secret research

for war strategies.

We felt that it was our duty to stop it.

The war research was symbolic of the war itself.

The expansion to Harlem we called:

"institutional racism."

- On April 23rd, there was a rally called,

and all of these students showed up.

And it turned out to be a huge crowd.

crowd chanting: Strike! Strike! Strike!

- It became kind of like a spontaneous mob.

And we wound up occupying the main classroom building.

- At Columbia University, students barricade themselves

into University buildings.

Their leader is a 20-year-old ex-Boy Scout.

- This is the politics of confrontation.

The one way we keep going is by building this strike.

- The task was to keep topping yourself.

To keep taking more and more risk.

- The student demands:

no more secret military research,

no more construction on land in Harlem,

and no punishment for occupying the buildings.

- People slept in sleeping bags,

they slept on the floor.

And we were constantly brought supplies.

And tossed them up to the windows.

Within a couple of days, we were occupying five buildings.

Nobody could go to classes.

- We hope very much that some settlement

can be worked out which will not require

us calling on police assistance.

- Grayson Kirk was the President of the University.

He was a conservative guy who was under enormous pressure.

And he wanted to end this thing,

wanted to bring back order. - Okay, people, keep cool.

There are cops berating this crowd here.

None of us will begin any violence,

so if there's any violence,

it will be because of the police.

- Gentlemen.

Show them the sidewalk or the building.

- President Grayson Kirk makes what he calls,

"a painful decision,"

and invites in the police.

crowd: Strike! Strike!

- The police came in, on some kind of rampage.

- We have a right to choose!

- Come on, pigs!

- Stop it, stop it!

- Police brought out the students

who had been holding about five buildings

for the past few days.

What everyone feared, took place.

- That's what the cops did.

- We stood in front of Low Library with our arms locked,

faculty and students singing,

"We shall overcome, we shall not be moved."

- You look like you've got a little blood on your face,

what happened? - Yeah, I think I was

hit with a club, which started the bleeding.

- The policeman grabbed him by the neck,

and smashed his face into the chair.

- I could never again trust this administration.

I could never again trust them.

They--if they didn't understand the kind of brutality

that was gonna be used on this campus,

they should have. - The young people were

being attacked from everywhere.

The United States ingested the violence of Vietnam.

If there was death in Vietnam,

there was going to be death in America.

- In all, 696 arrests were made,

109 injuries were reported.

Most of the injuries occurred outside the buildings.

- There was this tide that was swelling across the country,

in which cities were burned to the ground.

A voice was being raised, by way of social consciousness,

and demonstration. all: Got to be ready!

- And it was an angry voice.

The revolution was televised, and it was televised live.

- Dissent is a necessary ingredient of change,

but in a system of government that provides

for peaceful change, there is no cause

that justifies resort to violence.

Let us recognize that the first civil right

of every American is to be free from domestic violence.

So I pledge to you: we shall have order

in the United States.

- In 1968, Richard Nixon comes up with the phrase,

"The silent center."

- There are millions of people who do not demonstrate

who do not picket, or protest loudly.

This is the unspoken voice of America.

This is the silent center.

- What that referred to was how the media

was holding up these young student insurgents

as the paragons of morality.

And Richard Nixon understood, as no one else did,

that that made the people who were working hard

and playing by the rules

behind their white picket fences feel silenced.

- The message was extremely effective.

We were sailing serenely on a calm sea,

toward the nomination.

- At this time in America's history--

this watershed year, 1968--

at a time when America has never been in more trouble,

at home and abroad,

there is nothing wrong with this country

that new leadership cannot cure, and we promise

that new leadership.

- This very large crowd of students

has come to greet Senator McCarthy

at South Bend, Indiana.

This is the state in which he's going to have to meet

with Senator Robert Kennedy, head-on.

- McCarthy has proven himself as the genuine voice

of the anti-war movement. So, Robert Kennedy

has to demonstrate how he could be superior,

not simply a alternative, to Eugene McCarthy.

- You may recall, I-- at least, I do, you may not,

but in those early days, there was general regret

that someone better than I had not offered himself.

I, uh--

- McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy were not pals.

McCarthy had a rather... biting wit.

- I had some of the same regrets, I suppose.

I didn't know who the other man was,

but I hoped there was someone better.

I couldn't name him right off hand, at the time, but uh--

- My father didn't like McCarthy,

he thought McCarthy was um--a feat.

He couldn't picture McCarthy at a Cuban missile crisis.

- Eugene McCarthy was basically

a one-issue candidate; he was a peace candidate.

But Kennedy had a broader vision,

in terms of what's happening in the cities,

what's happening around race, and the issues of poverty.

crowd: We want Kennedy! We want Kennedy!

- We cannot separate ourselves no matter where we live.

From the problems, and the troubles, and the difficulties

that face the whole of the United States.

- Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President,

and the next President of the United States:

Hubert H. Humphrey.

- I shall seek the nomination of the Democratic Party.

- When Humphrey came in as a candidate,

he was regarded as a Johnson surrogate.

- I will run on the record

of the Johnson, Humphrey administration,

but I will not rest on it.

- And it was very clear, to everybody,

that Johnson controlled the party.

- President Johnson will do what he can

to help Humphrey win the nomination,

and to see that Senator Robert Kennedy

does not get the nomination.

- Who would be nominated by the Democratic Party

wasn't necessarily gonna be determined

by the primaries. It would be nominated

by the people who controlled the levers of power,

and that was Lyndon Johnson and his political machine.

And it was Vice President Hubert Humphrey

who would be the beneficiary.

- Nevertheless, if McCarthy/Kennedy amassed

enough delegates through the primary process,

They might be able to put pressure

on the Democratic machinery.

- Indiana's May 7th primary is critical

to the Kennedy strategy of demonstrating

to party leaders across the country

that he's the one Democratic candidate who can win big.

- Indiana can decide who is going to be

the nominee for the Democratic Party,

and therefore, very likely, who's going to be

the next President of the United States.

- McCarthy couldn't get any black vote,

Bobby Kennedy managed to get black vote,

and also get a lot of the established Democrats.

So his support looked very broad.

- Well, Senator Robbery Kennedy has won the first

primary test, in his attempt to secure the Democratic

nomination for the Presidency.

- My father really focused on the people in this country.

His appeal was to really the most disenfranchised classes.

People who lived in Appalachia,

blacks who lived in the Delta,

people from Harlem, Watts, Oakland,

and, of course, farm workers.

Very similar to Martin Luther King,

focusing on the poor and working people.

- In the aftermath of Dr. King's assassination,

it's Coretta Scott King who has the legacy of her husband

to draw upon to make the case

that change was needed, now.

- My husband always said, that if anything

happened to him,

to carry on his work for his people.

- Coretta was always an activist,

before Martin was an activist.

And she continued to be outspoken,

in order to make the point

that you can kill my husband,

but this movement is gonna go on.

- We have seen the power of nonviolence

in the movement for Civil Rights.

The campaign for the poor must go on.

- King's notion was to try to put pressure

on Congress to do something about the issue of poverty.

He was proposing, to use modern terms,

an Occupy movement on the National Mall.

Not for a day or two, but to stay.

- I declare this to be the site

of our new city, Resurrection City, USA.

- As Dr. King had dreamed, they built a shanty town

to expose a nation's shame.

They call it Resurrection City,

And it sits on the lawn beside the Reflecting Pool

at the Lincoln Memorial.

- We come here for one purpose:

And we don't intend to leave here

until we conquer what we came for.

- This is a CBS News Special Report:

- The very first step did begin today in Paris,

It was about as small as it could be.

All of the problems attendant to a meeting

of sovereign enemies were present;

who sits where, what language do you talk in,

what do you agree to argue about.

- There were tremendous expectations

on the American side about these talks.

When the delegation first arrived,

they just took hotel rooms, because they thought,

"Well, this is only gonna be a few weeks.

"And then we'll get a negotiated settlement."

- The President is disappointed that the North Vietnamese

today were unwilling to discuss anything of substance.

- And then after a while, they had to rent apartments

because it was gonna drag on a lot longer

than they thought. - It is already Saturday

in Vietnam, and the latest Communist offensive

is now in its sixth day.

It may be that the Communists are trying to remind

the negotiators that the Vietcong must have

a seat at the conference table

when the future of Vietnam is discussed.

- Well, it's a real horse race

out in Oregon, and in that Democratic Primary there

that could mean so much to the presidential hopes

of Senator Robert Kennedy and Senator Eugene McCarthy,

it's too close, the CBS News Estimate says, to call.

Senator Kennedy did make clear over the weekend

that the outcome in Oregon he felt was crucial

to his hopes for the nomination.

- I can't lose. I mean, I just--

I can't afford to lose if I'm going to

remain a very viable candidate.

- Oregon was just as bad a state

as you can imagine for Bobby.

Very few minorities, very suburban, middle-class

were progressive but kind of polite.

And he never clicked there.

- Oregon was a McCarthy victory.

We were certainly feeling euphoric that night.

- Every wagon train got as far as the Missouri River,

but the real test began once you crossed the Missouri,

and started up the Oregon Trail.

And now, of course, we're on to California.

- The shockwave is spreading slowly through this

Kennedy election headquarters, the only word adequate

to describe the result appears to be catastrophic.

- Kennedy had lost, but you saw him display

something that doesn't get talked about nearly enough,

which was Bobby's humor.

- Based on the returns, I think a, uh--

entirely new look at my whole organization,

my whole campaign, is in order.

Which I have done, and I have decided

to send my dog, Freckles, home.

- I like Freckles!

- Aww, I haven't really. He's coming with me.

crowd: Yay!

- The Oregon Primary was the first time

a Kennedy has ever lost an election.

Bobby Kennedy knew he had to go into California

and he had to win.

- This campaign train is on a life-or-death mission.

Robert Kennedy's fate as a Presidential candidate

now hangs on the outcome of the California primary.

His crowds have been good this Memorial Day,

in the sun-drenched San Joaquin Valley.

- Bobby Kennedy, having lost Oregon,

knew that he had to win California,

and that would be his ticket to the convention.

- Kennedy is back among his people.

And after the satisfied prosperity of Oregon,

which failed to respond to Kennedy's approach,

the Senator is again turned on.

- Kennedy!

- He was a rock star.

It gave him a kind of courage and power to keep going.

- Part of our job, everybody had to

wrap your arms around his legs,

so he wouldn't get pulled from the car

by his admirers.

- He campaigns so hard,

that his--his hand is swollen,

he loses his voice.

- We're here in Los Angeles, in California,

you will have made it possible

and I will work with all of you.

Give me your help! Give me your hand!

Thank you!

- ABC News presents: Race to the White House.

Complete coverage of the presidential election

year 1968.

Tonight: the California Primary,

coverage of today's presidential primary

in the Golden State.

- An hour-and-a-half after the polls have closed,

in California, the biggest primary of them all,

a slate of delegates pledged to Senator

Eugene McCarthy has established an early lead,

over a slate of delegates pledged

to Senator Robert Kennedy.

- On the last day,

the early returns were not good.

Bobby kind of sat nervous, like a little boy.

Worrying. - That doesn't mean anything.

49 to 38. - That doesn't mean anything.

Los Angeles won't be counted until 10:00 o'clock.

- Why has he got 49% and I've got 38%?

- Probably Hillsborough.

- But, returns got better,

and Bobby was reassured

that he at least had a fighting chance.

- With almost a quarter of the precincts

having reported in now, Kennedy does lead

with 44% of the votes.

Whoever gets a plurality

gets all of California's delegates.

- If Gene McCarthy loses, what happens

to your political life?

- Well, if Gene McCarthy loses, I guess I'll

have to vote for Kennedy.

- Final totals will be Kennedy 48%,

Senator McCarthy, 41%.

- In what I consider to be the most poignant moment

of the entire year, after the winning result

has come in, and before Bobby Kennedy goes

to declare victory, he turns to one of the oldest

Kennedy retainers and says, "I feel,

"for the first time, that I've made it on my own.

crowd: RFK! RFK!

- "I feel that I'm finally out

of the shadow of my brother."

crowd: We love Kennedy! We love Kennedy!

- Thank you very much.

I want to express my gratitude to

my dog, Freckles, who's been maligned.

As Franklin Roosevelt said, "I don't care what they say

"about me, but when they start to attack my dog--"

But, it--

And I--It's not-- I'm not doing this

in the order of importance, but I also want to thank

my wife, Ethel.

- It was tremendously exciting because

for some time now,

it had been building towards this moment,

getting an anti-war person in the White House.

And now, my God,

I think it's really gonna happen.

- My thanks to all of you, and now it's on

to Chicago, and let's win there.

- "On to Chicago and let's win there."

I--I can just still hear him saying it.

- His aides want him to rush to a press conference.

The press is waiting, they want him to give a statement.

And so, they take him by way of shortcut,

through the kitchen.

- Senator! - Senator!

- And that's where Sirhan Sirhan was waiting for him.

- Senator Kennedy has been shot.

Is that possible? Is that possible?

It's--

Is it--Senator Kennedy-- Oh, my God.

Senator Kennedy has been shot.

- Ladies and gentlemen, we've kept the air on,

because we've heard an alarming report

that Robert Kennedy was shot

in that ballroom at the Ambassador Hotel

in Los Angeles. A very loud noise,

like a clap of thunder was heard as...

- The great irony is, for all the fear of

crowds and tumult, it was trying to avoid crowds

that took him through that kitchen.

- Kennedy has been shot! Oh, my Lord!

- Why? - If you can shoot it,

please, shoot it!

- Why? - Look out for the gun!

- No! - All right?

- Oh, God, no!

- Hold him, hold him! Hold him!

We don't want another Oswald!

- Everybody, please, stay back!

Please stay back, we need a doctor here!

- Is there a doctor in the house?

Please, it's very important! We need a doctor!

- Please-- - Is there a doctor?

- Please leave the room.

Would you please leave the-- - If you do not

leave the room, we cannot get medical aid to the Senator.

Now would you please leave the room?

- Please proceed to the exits.

- Any more doctors in the house?

- After he's shot, he says to Ethel,

"How bad is it?"

And then he says

to the ambulance attendant who comes in,

"Please don't. Please, don't lift me."

And those are his last words before he goes into a coma.

- There was very much the sentiment,

how much is too much to take?

- Robert Kennedy's now undergoing

a neurosurgical operation.

He is said to be in very critical condition.

- Senator Robert Francis Kennedy

died at 1:44 a.m. today,

June 6, 1968.

He was, uh, 42 years old.

- This was really

the death of hope.

A loss of belief in the entire system.

- My brother need not be idealized,

or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life.

To be remembered simply as a good and decent man,

who saw wrong and tried to right it.

Saw suffering, and tried to heal it.

Saw war, and tried to stop it.

Those of us who loved him

and who take him to his rest today,

pray that what he was to us,

what he wished for others,

will someday come to pass for all the world.

- Well, I feel almost like hiding my face as an American

that something like this could actually happen.

- I think we're havin' a little too much violence

in this country.

- They go after the good men, like John Kennedy,

Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King.

- Like Lincoln long before, Bobby Kennedy's body

was taken in a train.

It was a hot, humid,

awful day, and the country mourned.

They turned out all along those old Pennsylvania

railroad tracks between New York and Washington,

as that funeral train slowly made its way down

to Arlington Cemetery.

- I'm heartbroken.

I think it's a terrible waste of a good man.

- It hurts me so bad to see him go.

- He stood for everybody, him and his brother,

and what they tried to accomplish, it's just

a shame how--how they just shot him down.

- More was being mourned

than the shock and tragedy of another Kennedy assassination.

What was being mourned was a vision for what 1968

was going to be.

- The following is a special report

from CBS News in Washington.

The Poor People's Rally.

For the past six weeks, Resurrection City

has hung on through unprecedented rainfall,

and a dwindling population.

- The Poor People's Campaign built Resurrection City

to finally address racial and economic injustice

in the United States, but ends up

a tragic disappointment.

It's one of the rainiest months

in the nation's capital.

They are living under deplorable conditions.

- Many of the poor who came see their high hopes

trickle away in disillusionment.

The campaign is at a virtual standstill.

- There appears to be a kind of insensitivity

to our demands

on the part of the Congressmen.

- They were completely taken aback

by the response of legislators,

many of whom were not moved by the spectacle.

- There's negotiations for them to leave peacefully,

They say, no, they're gonna continue.

So the authorities come and swoop everybody out.

- The poor people like myself, and other poor people

they can't get no kind of help from nobody.

I look at Mr. Kennedy, look at King,

he was only trying to help the poor. He died.

Kennedy was gonna help the poor, and they didn't

give him a chance, they killed him.

But there's one thing they forgot,

King had a dream.

They killed the dreamer but they couldn't kill his dream.

- By late spring of 1968,

a lot of Americans believed

that things can't get any worse.

But in many ways, we had some foreboding

of what was coming.

- Convention will come to order.

- Did we come all this way for this?

- George Wallace's audiences growing both in size

and in emotional outbursts.

- Political pigs, your days are numbered.

- There's real advantages in being an underdog.

- Troops arriving in Chicago in substantial numbers.

- Police all over the place, there's a really big fray

going on in here. - This is the mood

of this convention on the floor.

- Thousands of young people are being beaten,

in the streets of Chicago.

crowd chanting: The whole world is watching!

The whole world is watching!