Newly Digitized Footage Reveals an RFK Speech One Week Before His Assassination

At the end of May 1968, Robert F. Kennedy stopped in Corvallis, Oregon, to campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for the presidency. The exact date of his stop is unclear, but it was in advance of the state's primary on May 28, which Kennedy ultimately lost to Senator Eugene McCarthy. A little more than a week later, Kennedy was dead, assassinated following the celebration of his victory in California's primary.

That speech in Corvallis, televised at the time on KOAC-TV and KOPB-TV, captures a moment in time when the prospect of another Kennedy leading the country was very real. And now, for the first time ever, a short clip of that video has been digitized and posted online, shared with The Atlantic as part of our series on the preservation of America's public-media history....