Robert Kennedy: The greatest leadership speech ever made?

How do you measure the 'greatness' of an act of leadership? Forty years ago on Friday (April 4th), Robert Kennedy stepped off a plane and gave the speech below, from the back of a flatbed truck. It wasn't the speech he had intended to give, which was a campaign speech. Notice the scrunched up piece of paper in his hand. That's where he scribbled notes for this impromptu speech, though he doesn't refer to them. Kennedy was due to give a campaign speech in a poor black part of Indianapolis. He knew, but the crowd didn't, that Martin Luther King had been killed that night. You can hear him say at the start of the clip "Do they know about Martin Luther King?" There were riots in 100 US cities this night, in outrage at Dr. King's murder. But, there was no riot in Indianapolis, where Robert Kennedy gave this speech. Ignore the Italian translation (unless you are Italian). The image appears after about 30 seconds, as the cameraman was caught by surprise. There is more to this story, courtesy of Professor John Kotter. After you watch the clip, take a look in the Inspire Me area of The Hub for the rest of the story of what happened that night in Indianapolis. Click on the triangular 'play' button, below.