Martin Luther King Jr.'s and Robert

f. Kennedy's deaths had a huge impact on the nation because both men

had worked to bring about racial equality and end poverty.

Both men were great defensors and leaders of civil and human rights. When Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4th, 1968 John F. Kennedy was still a candidate to the presidency of the United States, but historians and his biographers consider that the speech he gave is one of the most overlooked in US political history. Two months later, JFK brother was murdered too, which probably increased his awareness regarding the ideas Martin Luther King Jr. fought.

Both were also pacifiers, convinced that civil rights should not be protected by generating hatred, or division, but by sharing the same unifying non-violent vision for the nation.

Though, JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. never had a close relationship, after winning the presidency Kennedy considered him a reference regarding the concerns on the civil rights for the poor and disenfranchised.

Kennedy stated: "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." (The Washington Post, John F. Kennedy, 1968)

Therefore, both were moral leaders for the nation, powerful speakers and both tried to address the differences between the rich and the poor, the African Americans and the white, they were visionaries, charismatic, and at that time, both faced what had been considering one of the worst and most harmful presidencies of history: Nixon's.