(narrator) The year is 1968.

The United States is a divided country.

(woman) The Vietnam War was creating sharp divisions in American society.

The Civil Rights Movement, the war on poverty, the desire to improve economic circumstances for all Americans.

These were all issues.

I look upon 1968 as the year we had all these tensions and conflicts that were exposed by the previous dozen or so years.

It came to a head.

(narrator) After just one term, President Lyndon B. Johnson is standing down.

The field in this year's presidential elections is wide open.

Robert Kennedy is looking to continue the legacy that his brother John left unfinished when he was assassinated five years ago.

If I am elected President of the United States, I am going to work for those who are deprived, those who are poor, those who lack jobs, those who lack decent education.

(narrator) Martin Luther King Jr., the most charismatic figure in the Civil Rights Movement, is rallying crowds with his message of peace and equal opportunity.

(Martin Luther King Jr.) Free at last, free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

(narrator) In the space of 100 days, both men will be shot dead.

(woman) Is there a doctor in the house?

Please, it's very important!

We need a doctor!

(man) The two assassinations had an incredible, incredible effect on American self-image.

America was in turmoil.

(narrator) One hundred days which will change the world forever.

(indistinct shouting) (Martin Luther King Jr.) No man is free... (Winston Churchill) We shall fight on the beaches.

...if he fears death.

(narrator) A hundred days can change everything from major military upsets... (George H. W. Bush) Iraq's army is defeated.

(narrator) ...and global crisis... (Winston Churchill) We shall never surrender!

(narrator) ...to moments of hope.

(Ronald Reagan) Tear down this wall!

(narrator) These 100 days provide a window into the events that defined modern history.

(mixed shouting) (tense music) (Martin Luther King Jr.) And then I got into Memphis.

(narrator) April 3rd, 1968.

And some began to say the threats... (narrator) Civil rights leader Martin Luther King is in Memphis, Tennessee.

He's come to lead demonstrations as part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Poor People's Campaign.

In February, two Black garbage collectors Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were sheltering from the rain when their truck malfunctioned and killed them.

King sees this as a clear illustration of how lack of economic opportunity connects with civil rights.

(man) The Poor People's Campaign was the campaign that King was involved in working with and organizing sanitation workers for better wages and conditions.

But this was really part of a broader effort to address economic issues, particularly for the Black community.

(indistinct remarks) (narrator) This campaign is the latest to be organized by Martin Luther King Jr., who since 1955, with his involvement in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, has become the most prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement.

A theologian and minister, King was known for soaring oratory and leading symbolic protests, most famously marching on Washington to deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech, envisaging a racially United States.

(mixed chatter) (regal music) In 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population.

Thank you.

(applause) (narrator) The same year, in which President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, outlawing segregation in public places and discriminatory employment practices.

(President Johnson) I urge every American to join in this effort to bring justice and hope to all our people and to bring peace to our land.

(applause) (narrator) It was the first of three major pieces of legislation passed in the '60s, achieved through the strenuous efforts and sometimes at great risk by progressive politicians and activists.

King called it a Second Emancipation.

(mixed chatter) (soft music) (narrator) Four years later, in 1968, King continues his work.

(man) So by 1968, the Civil Rights Movement had achieved a lot of its original goals.

It had achieved desegregation across the South and had made significant inroads in terms of job discrimination, in terms of voting rights, and by 1968, it was already starting to fracture.

Martin Luther King was associated with a more moderate wing of the movement, and yet he himself was more radical than a lot of people, a lot of his admirers understood.

(man) And I think he could see that achieving civil rights reform simply got rid of a certain kind of barrier.

But it didn't really bring equality to Black Americans, because when someone else has had a head start for a century, catching up is very hard to do.

So you see that rather than satisfying Black people, that our change has come, we're happy now, it really fed their desire to try to change more.

(suspenseful music) (narrator) April 3rd, 1968, King is in Memphis supporting striking sanitation workers.

"The issue is injustice," King says.

"The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealing with its public servants who happen to be sanitation workers."

♪ The speech, which becomes known as the "I've been to the mountaintop" speech is the last speech given by Martin Luther King.

♪ (Clayborne) First of all, he didn't want to give the Mountaintop speech that night, and it was only when they arrived and Ralph Abernathy and Jesse Jackson, all of them walk in, and they could sense that the crowd is very disappointed.

"You mean we're going to listen to you?

We came to listen to Martin Luther King."

And they call him, and so he's literally-- gets out of bed to come and give this speech.

(Martin Luther King Jr.) Like anybody, I would like to live a long life, longevity has its place.

But I'm not concerned about that now.

I just want to do God's will.

He doesn't have a prepared speech.

Sometimes some of his best speeches are extemporaneous ones, and that was the case on this occasion.

And He has allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land.

I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land!

(applause) It's an amazing speech.

And the fact that these workers went on strike and said our conditions are so bad we'd rather go on strike and get nothing than to continue this.

And Martin Luther King came to try to encourage them, and that's what brought that movement attention.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!

(cheering) (upbeat music) (narrator) April 4th, 1968, Indiana.

Senator Robert "Bobby" Kennedy is running for the Democratic nomination in the presidential race.

♪ The Indiana Primary is in just three days' time and Kennedy is trailing his opponent.

Bobby's experience is extensive.

As part of the Kennedy family, he has been around politics his entire life.

(John F. Kennedy) My brother Bobby, who managed the campaign, perhaps he could give us some idea, more up-to-date... (narrator) While campaigning for his brother's election, Kennedy came into contact with Martin Luther King.

When King was jailed in Georgia during a sit-in protest, Kennedy helped get him released.

(woman) This was actually an important moment in the presidential campaign.

John F. Kennedy called Martin Luther King's wife, Coretta Scott King, to express his sorrow and anger at the arrest.

After that, Martin Luther King's father reportedly said that he had a suitcase full of votes and he was going to deliver them for John F. Kennedy.

(dramatic music) (narrator) After John won the 1960 election, he appointed Robert Attorney General, and during his presidency, their views on civil rights would continue to evolve.

Initially John and Bobby viewed the issue pragmatically, a way to secure the Black vote, but influenced by King and other leaders, they grew to see civil rights as a fundamental issue, and they took it up as part of their vision for a better America, a vision ended by John's assassination in 1963.

(soft music) ♪ (Clay) RFK started to change after his brother's assassination and after he became a senator, he became more liberal.

He became more sympathetic to the kind of critique that Martin Luther King was starting to put forward after 1965, and so you saw both of them starting to make statements independent of each other, but really very much in the same lines in terms of what was wrong with America and how do we solve the problems that are ailing the United States.

(Bobby) If I am elected President of the United States, I am going to work for those who are deprived, those who are poor, those who lack jobs, those who lack decent education and lack a decent housing, whether they be white or Black.

That I pledge to you.

(cheering) (narrator) Robert Kennedy now running his own presidential campaign hopes he can continue the family legacy and build upon the work he and his brother started while in office.

(rock music) (Meena) The soaring rhetoric of John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," Robert F. Kennedy shared that message and that same ability that his brother had to inspire Americans, to encourage a belief in the highest aspirations that American society could achieve.

(narrator) "America needs to take action," Kennedy tells the crowds at his rallies, "withdraw from Vietnam, implement civil rights, and address poverty."

(Bobby) I think we need to bring peaceful change.

Violence is no answer to our problems in the United States.

(cheering and applause) (narrator) April 4th, 1968.

(mixed shouting) (narrator) As Kennedy campaigns in Indiana, James Earl Ray takes a room in the Bessie Brewer Boarding House in Memphis.

(ominous music) It's opposite the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King is staying.

(Mel) We know a lot about the motives of James Earl Ray.

We know that he was a racist.

We know that since he was a child, he voiced those racist sentiments.

♪ He grew up in an area of Missouri, Southern Missouri, which was known as Little Dixie.

His brothers admit that he harbored racist sentiments.

He hated Martin Luther King, he hated the Kennedys.

(narrator) King meets with his advisors at the Lorraine Motel.

They plan the protest march that will take place in three days, the same day as the Indiana Primary vote.

Then, Martin Luther King stepped out onto the balcony.

♪ At 6:01 P.M., a single gunshot hits King in the face and neck.

♪ (Jesse Jackson) I asked him, I said, "Dr. King, do you hear me?

Dr. King, do you hear me?"

And he didn't say anything, and I tried to hold his head.

James Earl Ray was hiding in a building across the way, and he had set up in a bathroom with his sniper rifle.

(narrator) Witnesses see a young white male, well-dressed, running from the boarding house opposite.

(somber music) Police circulate the description just five minutes after the shooting.

♪ Bobby Kennedy and his team are driving to the airport.

As they board a plane, Kennedy gets terrible news.

There's been a shooting.

(sirens blaring) King is rushed to the hospital.

He dies just after 7 P.M. (Clayborne) I think, in general, I believe that Martin Luther King would not have survived the '60s.

He had a number of close calls before that.

When you think about it, America during that time, if John F. Kennedy, with the Secret Service protecting him, couldn't survive, Malcolm X couldn't survive the '60s.

We're a very violent nation.

(narrator) Near the boarding house, police find a rifle and some clothing dropped by the fleeing assassin.

(Mel) James Earl Ray escaped from Memphis, Tennessee where he shot Martin Luther King.

In his Mustang car, he drove to Atlanta.

He'd had a rooming house in Atlanta.

This was his plan.

(narrator) Kennedy's plane touches down in Indianapolis.

He gets updated information.

King has died.

(dramatic music) Kennedy is scheduled to speak at a rally in a Black neighborhood.

Indianapolis Mayor and Police Chief request he calls it off.

(Meena) There was concern about riots, some 60 cities around the country, the upheaval, the distress, the anger about Martin Luther King's assassination.

But Robert Kennedy said he would speak.

(Clay) He made his way to the event venue, and the news had not reached most people, and instead of giving his prepared speech, Robert F. Kennedy got up on the dais and said, "I have news for you.

Martin Luther King has been assassinated."

(Bobby) For those of you who are Black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust 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 poem... (Clay) And he gave an extemporaneous speech that was striking in his willingness to sort of bear his own emotional toll, the emotional pain that he had felt after his brother's assassination, and at the same time to tie it into a lot of the themes that he had been running on already as a presidential candidate.

(indistinct remarks) (Peter) The immediate effect of Martin Luther King's assassination was one of the largest waves of urban revolts, or some people call them "racial riots," in American history.

(sirens blaring) The largest took place in the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C., but there were many, many others.

But there was also just widespread grief.

(narrator) But the city in which Kennedy spoke, Indianapolis, remained peaceful.

(Meena) And that speech contributed to the calm in Indianapolis that evening, in the sea of turmoil as the country was rocked by this, just stunned and devastated by this assassination.

(Bobby) Thank you very much.

(mixed shouting) (narrator) April 5th.

King's body is moved to a funeral home.

Kennedy organizes a charter flight for Coretta King, Martin's widow, to accompany the body to Atlanta, King's hometown.

(man) Martin Luther King was about the greatest leader our people has ever had, and there'll be no one who can replace him.

Well, it's a feeling of partly sadness and mostly hatred.

(narrator) Rioting continues in more than 100 cities.

(Peter) In fact, the revolts rarely spread beyond the Black community.

Largely targeting small white businesses that were in the Black community, which were seen as being exploitative, discriminatory.

(man) When white America killed Dr. King last night, she declared war on us.

(narrator) President Johnson orders the National Guardsmen to police Washington.

(Clay) These were outpourings of anger and frustration caused by King's assassination, but really expressive of deeper concerns, and that's why a lot of times people prefer to use the term "uprising" instead of "riots," because while there were a lot of qualities, what we would call a riot, really, these were expressive of something more.

(helicopter buzzing) (suspenseful music) (narrator) The FBI take charge of investigating King's assassination.

It becomes the largest manhunt in history.

Ironically, the FBI has had Dr. King under surveillance since 1955.

(Peter) J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, had named him along with a lot of other Black radicals, people who he wanted to, in his own words, "neutralize."

King didn't know that.

Hoover, in fact, with the support of Robert F. Kennedy-- or at least the authorization, I should say, of Robert F. Kennedy-- had wire-tapped Martin Luther King throughout most of the 1960s.

(narrator) Meanwhile, in Atlanta, Ray dumps his car and catches a bus to Detroit.

April 6th.

The FBI traces the rifle as having been sold to a Harvey Lohmeyer.

They also traced discarded clothing to a laundry service used by an Eric Galt.

The boarding house room was rented by one John Willard.

The FBI queries whether these are three men or one man using three aliases.

(soft music) Ray takes a taxi from Detroit and crosses into Canada.

♪ (solemn music) April 7th.

President Johnson issues a proclamation.

(President Johnson) The dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has not died with him.

(narrator) Johnson declares a national day of mourning for King.

(President Johnson) That America shall not be ruled by the bullet, but only by the ballot of free and of just men.

(narrator) Flags fly at half-mast.

♪ Robert Kennedy travels to Washington.

(Clay) Buildings were still burning, there was rubble in the streets, and he attended a church service on 7th Street, and then marched up or walked up-- spontaneously, this was not a planned campaign event, this was just him getting out, bearing witness to what had happened, and trying to connect with the people who had been affected by it.

And that was very moving.

(narrator) King's body lies in state at Spelman College in Atlanta.

The queue of mourners stretches for 1,700 yards around campus.

♪ (choir) ♪ Amazing grace ♪ (narrator) April 8th.

(choir) ♪ How sweet... ♪ (narrator) Coretta King, three of her four children, and civil rights figures lead a memorial march.

(choir) ♪ ...a wretch like me ♪ (Clayborne) I think she makes one of the bravest decisions I think anyone could ever make.

Martin Luther King was assassinated on a Thursday.

On Monday, I'm going to go and lead a march in Memphis, and I'm gonna bring my kids.

Now, can you imagine Jackie Kennedy after the assassination of John F. Kennedy saying, "Oh, yes, I'm gonna go back to Dallas and lead a demonstration."

But that's what she did.

We're going to continue his work to make all people truly free, and to make every person feel that he is a human being.

His campaign for the poor must go on.

(applause) (choir) ♪ ...me home ♪ (narrator) April 9th.

The funeral of Martin Luther King is held in Atlanta.

(Peter) There was a massive attendance at his funeral, and I think there was just a sense that somehow the heart of Americans had been torn out of them.

(narrator) Coretta King meets beforehand with some of the prominent figures who have come to pay respects, including Ethel and Bobby Kennedy.

(somber piano music) (Clayborne) Robert Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy come, and I have a picture of them sitting next to the bed.

And they're talking with her about how to carry on this struggle for the Poor People's Campaign, because that's something that Robert Kennedy is very interested in.

How are we going to continue that?

♪ (narrator) Mourners hear a recording of King's last sermon in which he imagined what might be said at his own funeral.

Although he was often leading protests, he says, like a drum major leading a parade, he would rather be remembered for serving others.

(tense music) ♪ (President Johnson) I do not exaggerate when I say that the proudest moments of my presidency have been times such as this.

(narrator) April 11th.

The Fair Housing Act becomes law.

The law prevents housing discrimination on the basis of race, sex, nationality, or religion.

(Meena) The fact that this had to be put into legislation in 1968 demonstrated how strong the forces of discrimination were and the need for federal legislation.

(President Johnson) But violence cannot redress a solitary wrong.

(narrator) The act is the last major legislation of the civil rights era to be passed.

(applause) (Peter) It still was a very imperfect law, and it couldn't undo the legacy of 40 years of residential segregation in America and the wealth gap that it had created.

And I think King understood that.

That was one of the reasons he was organizing the Poor People Campaign.

(dog barking) (dark rock music) ♪ (narrator) April 12th.

The FBI trace Eric Galt to Los Angeles and obtain a photo from a bartending school he went to.

♪ April 17th.

The FBI issue a warrant for Eric Galt and release a photo of him.

J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Director, orders his officers to compare fingerprints from the rifle with the 53,000 prints in the FBI's files.

The technology of the time means this is done manually.

(solemn music) April 19th.

Just after 9:00 a.m., the FBI gets a fingerprint match.

Eric Galt is, in fact, James Earl Ray.

Ray spent 12 years in prison for robberies and escaped in April 1967.

He was a wanted man even before shooting King.

♪ But Ray is now in Toronto and applies for a Canadian passport.

Already, conspiracy theories are growing, some of them involving Hoover and the FBI.

(Peter) There are those who argue that there was government culpability in the assassination of Martin Luther King, and we know that Hoover despised Martin Luther King, and he had for years.

His hatred of him only got worse over time.

(narrator) Members of the King family and other civil rights leaders come to believe that the government was involved in King's murder.

♪ (upbeat music) ♪ April 27th.

(applause) The race for the presidential nomination had been suspended, but the candidates are now back campaigning.

With President Johnson not seeking a second term, it's a live issue as to who will be the 37th president.

Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan are vying for the Republican nomination.

♪ (Meena) In some respects, on the Republican side, the protests, the chaos, the battles on the streets provided an opening for Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon to mount a presidential campaign based on law and order and stability.

♪ (Nixon) Because we want peace, and we do not want to play politics with peace.

(applause) (jazz music) (narrator) In the Democrat runoff, Senator Eugene McCarthy leads in the primaries.

Robert Kennedy is a late entrant.

The Civil Rights Movement sees Kennedy as their best hope.

His platform is in step with what King advocated on poverty, civil rights, and negotiated peace in Vietnam.

Because the power is in the people.

♪ (narrator) And today, another Democrat announces his candidacy.

(Meena) Now, the vice president, Hubert Humphrey, although he entered the race too late to actually enter primaries, had strong support from state and local party leaders.

(Humphrey) It seems to me that if we make our politics one of social service, one of community service, one of help to people, that we'll make American politics a meaningful experience.

(soft music) (narrator) May 6th.

Ray flies from Canada to London and on to Lisbon in Portugal.

(Mel) He was looking for ways to get to Africa because he admired the Ian Smith regime in Rhodesia, and he wanted to become a mercenary soldier.

He went to Lisbon first to try and get a ship to Africa, but he couldn't.

He ran out of money, he came back to London.

(mellow jazz music) (narrator) May 12th.

♪ The centerpiece of the Poor People's Campaign, the occupation of Washington Mall, is finally happening.

Coretta King and Reverend Abernathy lead protesters in a march.

They set up camp in the Mall, tents sprouting on the grass.

It's called Resurrection City.

♪ (Peter) I think the media accepted a very negative frame at the time and would point out the negative aspects of the Poor People's Campaign, but others would note that it was part of a longer-term struggle, organized and led by women, in some cases, women who were on welfare or in public housing, demanding a degree of dignity in their lives.

♪ (narrator) President Johnson orders troops to police the tent city.

Caravans of protesters arrive, swelling Resurrection City to over 3,000 campers.

(soft, dark music) May 18th.

♪ A 24-year-old man, Sirhan Sirhan, writes in his diary, "My determination to eliminate RFK is becoming more of an unshakeable obsession.

RFK must die."

Sirhan is a Palestinian Christian who was born in Jerusalem.

So why does he want to assassinate Kennedy?

♪ The first motive was personal.

He was a nobody, he wanted to be a somebody.

The second reason was political.

He emigrated with his family to America when he was 12, and as a teenager, he grew more and more fanatical in his Arab nationalism.

When he discovered that Robert Kennedy advocated sending Phantom jets to Israel, this made him more incensed.

(interviewer) Would you say he was fanatical about Israel?

I would say that he was fanatical about Israel and the Arab joining.

I brought up the discussion about the Jews going into Jerusalem, and he got very inflamed and very upset about it, and he just flared up into a temper right away.

(dramatic music) (narrator) Kennedy will be in California in a few weeks' time for the primary.

♪ His visit will coincide with the anniversary of the Six-Day War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states.

♪ In the aftermath of that war, thousands of Palestinians, like Sirhan and his family, were displaced from their homes.

(soft music) June 1st.

Ray is still on the run.

He's now back in London, trying to raise money by robbing a jewelry store and a bank.

The FBI suspect that Ray obtained a Canadian passport.

Today, Canadian authorities find a match between Ray's picture and a passport application in the name of George Sneyd.

The FBI issues a global watch and detain request for Sneyd.

(man) What date did George Sneyd check in here?

Checked in on the 28th of May.

He stayed until the morning of the 5th of June.

(narrator) June 3rd.

(gentle music) After a late start in the Democrat race, Kennedy is gaining momentum, but there are worries about his safety.

Crowds grow frenzied with excitement, and they're very close, touching Bobby's hair, even tearing his clothes.

He brushes off concerns but flinches when a balloon pops.

(Meena) Kennedy was doing well.

Had won Indiana and Nebraska.

This was a campaign that was gearing up to mount a strong challenge to the McCarthy campaign.

(upbeat music) (narrator) Tomorrow will be a significant primary.

California, a diverse state with lots of delegates.

Kennedy thinks he can win it.

The campaign sets up headquarters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

(soft, grim music) Sirhan Sirhan visits the hotel, scouting the location.

The next day, he practices shooting at a gun range.

(gunshots) (crowd chanting) (lively music) June 4th.

Polling day in the California and South Dakota Democrat primaries.

(crowd chanting) Good news for the Kennedy campaign.

Bobby wins both states decisively.

(Kennedy) Thank you very much.

(Meena) The Kennedy momentum was certainly there.

California was a big win for Robert Kennedy.

(Kennedy) Can you hear this?

Can you hear?

You can't hear?

(narrator) Sirhan is at the Ambassador Hotel.

He's asking kitchen staff about Kennedy's movements.

He has a gun hidden inside a campaign poster.

(grim music) (applause) (lively music) After interviews, Kennedy celebrates with supporters in the hotel ballroom.

"We are a great country," he tells them.

"An unselfish country and a compassionate country.

I intend to make that my basis for running."

Kennedy thanks his wife Ethel and looks forward to the convention in August.

"And let's win there," he says.

(applause) (solemn music) June 5th.

It's just after midnight as Robert Kennedy leaves the ballroom and comes down to the kitchen.

(shouting) Sirhan shoots Kennedy at point-blank range, emptying the gun and hitting him in the head and neck.

Five other people are wounded.

(clamoring) (man) Everybody, please stay back.

Please stay back.

We need a doctor here.

(woman) Is there a doctor in the house?

Please, it's very important.

We need a doctor.

(clamoring) (narrator) Sirhan is wrestled to the ground.

(shouting) Kennedy is on the floor, seriously wounded.

"Is everybody okay?"

he asks.

♪ The press are all around.

(clamoring) Kennedy is rushed to hospital.

(clamoring) ♪ Sirhan is arrested.

(man) He must have been waiting because just as they were going for the elevator, he left the back entrance, he fired at him, and he shot three people, so... ♪ (indistinct shouting) (man) Is there a doctor out there?

(somber music) ♪ (narrator) June 6th.

♪ Kennedy undergoes neurosurgery to remove the bullets in his head.

♪ Updates from Kennedy's advisor, Frank Mankiewicz, say that Bobby's condition... ...is described as extremely critical.

(narrator) At 2:00 a.m., 26 hours after the shooting, Mankiewicz announces Robert F. Kennedy's death.

♪ Senator Robert Francis Kennedy died at 1:44 a.m. today, June 6th, 1968.

He was, uh, 42 years old.

Thank you.

♪ (narrator) Kennedy's body is taken to New York where it lies in state at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

An estimated 100,000 people file past the closed coffin.

(Meena) Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, hours after he won the Democratic primary in California and two months after the assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis, devastated American politics.

The shock that two leaders in civil rights, in combatting poverty, in trying to move the nation past the Vietnam War, had both been killed in such shocking circumstances really raised questions for many Americans about what the future of the country would be.

(Clayborne) It was, to me, the assassination of hope.

That's what brought them together is that both of them were hopeful that, by their own activism and persistence, that they could bring the nation to a better point.

(narrator) For a second time, the presidential campaign is suspended for a fortnight.

(boy) I waited for two hours.

(interviewer) Was it worth it?

(boy) Yeah, I'll say it was.

(woman) It's incomprehensible.

I just can't believe it, it's horrible.

(tense music) (narrator) June 8th.

An officer at London's Heathrow Airport inspects passports of outbound passengers.

A name triggers recollection.

George Sneyd is on the watch and detain list.

The officer calls security.

It's Ray about to fly to Brussels.

He is arrested.

Martin Luther King's assassin has been captured.

(solemn music) The Kennedy family, President Johnson, and friends attend Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral before Bobby's coffin is taken by train to Washington.

Crowds line the route.

(train clacking) ♪ Late at night, Robert Kennedy is buried next to his brother.

♪ June 9th.

Today is a day of national mourning for Robert Kennedy.

♪ Under questioning by the LA police, Sirhan admits to killing Kennedy, although he later says that he was drunk and cannot remember.

♪ June 24th.

The permit for the Poor People's Campaign camp on Washington Mall expires today.

(Clay) It didn't achieve the goals that it was hoping to achieve.

It was seen as a nuisance by the rest of the public, and eventually, the city government came in and cleared it out.

(tense music) ♪ (narrator) July 3rd.

♪ America has applied to the UK for Ray to be extradited.

The UK court grants the request.

Ray will await trial in Memphis for the murder of Martin Luther King.

(funk music) July 11th.

Day 100.

It's a month before the Democrat and Republican Parties hold their conventions to choose their presidential nominees.

A Gallup poll suggests that voters prefer pro-war Hubert Humphrey over Richard Nixon's hazy pledge of peace with honor.

(Humphrey) Don't let California elect Richard Nixon!

Don't you dare do it out here!

You people can be the difference in this election!

You people right here can win this election!

♪ (narrator) What would Kennedy have fated if he had lived?

(Mel) It's debatable whether Robert Kennedy would've won the Democratic nomination.

He won the last primary, but historians are split.

Robert Kennedy had a lot of support and had a lot of excitement at the time.

(applause, whistling) (grim music) (narrator) James Earl Ray confesses to shooting King and is sentenced to 99 years in prison.

♪ He dies, still incarcerated, in 1998.

♪ Sirhan Sirhan also pleads guilty and is sentenced to death.

California, however, rules that the death penalty is unconstitutional and commutes the sentence to life in prison.

(indistinct) Sirhan's repeated applications for parole continue to be refused.

(judge) Do you swear or affirm the testimony you will give this day will be the truth, the whole truth... (Sirhan) I definitely do.

(judge) Very well.

♪ (narrator) Both Sirhan and Ray later claim they were not acting alone in the assassinations.

(Mel) In this case, there were a number of questions raised, which is what conspiracy writers do.

They see anomalies in the evidence, the mistakes made by police officers, and they convert that into conspiratorial thinking.

♪ (excited shouting) (narrator) Richard Nixon wins the election and becomes president.

Despite his campaign promise of peace with honor in Vietnam, U.S. involvement continues until 1973.

(bright swing music) (Clayborne) I think that 1968 was a crucial turning point because you had, even in the midst of a very chaotic time, you had the possibility of America moving in a very different direction.

So the question is, why didn't it?

(Meena) Robert F. Kennedy was 42.

Martin Luther King was 39.

♪ Just think of how the United States would be different if both of those individuals had lived.

Their legacy stays with us, and the promise and the lost opportunity, those are questions that Americans raised in 1968 and that continue, sadly, to be part of what the United States is today.

My husband often told the children that if a man had nothing that was worth dying for, then he was not fit to live.

(narrator) King and Kennedy's deaths marked the end of the civil rights era.

Later that year, Arthur Ashe becomes the first Black male to win the Grand Slam tennis tournament when he wins the US Open, and Shirley Chisholm becomes the first Black woman elected to the House of Representatives.

What's wrong with somebody running for president of this country?

After all, for 15 years, I have been the ghost writer for a lot of them.

(shouting) (narrator) Although discrimination and violence against Black Americans continues, Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy of nonviolence and peace continues to inspire.

It is a message that was heard around the world.

(quartet singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot") King spoke out against the division of East and West Germany, apartheid in South Africa, and colonialism and imperialism worldwide.

Streets and monuments are named in his honor around the globe in places such as Australia, Brazil, Germany, and Hungary.

(Clayborne) If Martin Luther King's work does not reverberate through time, then I've been wasting the last close to five decades of my life, and I don't think so.

I feel privileged that, here is a person who I know with certainty that, 500 years from now at Stanford University, if somebody says, and someone goes in the library and says, "I heard about this guy, Martin Luther King.

Do you have any materials on him?"

that it'll be there.

(narrator) "When these two young men were murdered, says civil rights leader John Lewis, "something died in all of us."

(vibrant music) ♪ ♪ (bright music)