Tom Clay, MoWest records, 1971. Transcribed by Scott Johnson.
Text in [square brackets] identifies a speaker. Text in {braces} identifies a sound. Text in italics is an editorial comment or clarification.
[Tom Clay] What is segregation?
[Child] I don’t know what seggerashom is.
[Clay] Ah, what is bigotry?
[Child] I don’t know what biggery is.
[Clay] What does, uh, hatred mean?
[Child] I don’t know what it is.
[Clay]What is prejudice?
[Child] Um, I think it’s when somebody’s sick.
{whistle}
[Marine Corps drill instructor] Rise and shine boys!
[Marines] One! Two! Three! Four! One! Two! Three! Four!
{squad automatic weapon fires long bursts}
[Marines] One!
[D.I.] Lift your head up!
[Marines] Two!
[D.I.] Throw your shoulders back!
[Marines] Three!
[D.I.] Get your chest out!
[Marines] Four!
[D.I.] Let me hear you shout!
[Marines] One! Two! Three! Four! One Two Three Four! One Two Three Four!
[D.I.] I don’t know but I believe
[Marines] I don’t know but I believe
[D.I.] I’ll be home by Christmas Eve!
[Marines] I’ll be home by Christmas Eve!
[D.I.] Sound off!
[Marines] One Two!
[D.I.] Sound off!
[Marines] Three Four!
[D.I.] Sound off!
[Marines] One Two Three Four! One Two! Three Four!
[Jackie DeShannon] Anybody here seen my old friend John? Can you tell me where he’s gone?
Recorded from a live radio broadcast
[Ron Jenkins, KBOX Radio, Dallas]
We’re at the Trade Mart, the motorcade is coming by here. I can see many, many motorcycles coming by now, police motorcycles. Just heard a call on the radio for all units along Industrial to pick up the motorcade, something has happened here, we understand there has been a shooting. The Presidential car coming up now, we know it’s the Presidential car, I can see Mrs. Kennedy’s pink suit. {sirens, many of them} There’s a Secret Service man spread-eagled over the top of the car. We understand Governor and Mrs. Connelly are in the car with President and Mrs. Kennedy. We can’t see who has been hit if anybody’s been hit, but something is wrong here, something is terribly wrong. I’m in behind the motorcade trying to follow them, it looks as though they’re going to Parkland Hospital…
[David Brinkley] {teletypes} We interrupt this program to bring you a special bulletin. Dallas, Texas. The flash, apparently official: President John F. Kennedy died at 1PM, Central Standard Time.
[Jackie DeShannon] Anybody here seen my old friend Martin? Can you tell me where he’s gone? He’s freed a lot of people, but it seems the good, they die young.
[Dr. Martin Luther King] …difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind! {applause, cheers} Like anybody, I would like to live!
[Sen. Robert Kennedy] No one can be certain who next will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed.
[Jackie DeShannon] Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby? Can you tell me where he’s gone?
[Sen. Robert Kennedy] Mayor Yorty has just sent me a message that we’ve been here too long already. So, ah, my thanks to all of you, and now it’s on to Chicago, and let’s win there.
{gunshot, screams, total chaos}
[Andrew West, KRKD, Los Angeles] Senator Kennedy has been s… Senator Kennedy has been shot, is that possible? Oh my God. Senator Kennedy has been shot. Rafer Johnson has a hold of the man who apparently has fired the shot.
{utter pandemonium}
[West] {shouting} Get the gun! Get the gun! Get the gun! Stay away from the gun!
[?] Get the gun!
[West] His hand is frozen! Take a hold of his thumb, and break it if you have to! Get his gun! All right?
[?] Everybody please get back, please get back! We need…
[West] That’s it Rafer! Get it! Get the gun, Rafer!
[?] {screaming} Get the gun!
[West] Hold him, hold him!
[?] Hold that bastard!
[West] We don’t want another Oswald!
[Sen. Edward Kennedy] Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainty. That is the way he lived; that is what he leaves us. My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, 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, {voice breaks} pray that what he was to us, and what he wished for others, will someday come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched, and who sought to touch him, “Some men s-see things as they are, and say, ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were, and say,’Why not?'”
[The Blackberries] What the world needs now is love, sweet love.
No, not just for some, but for everyone.
{piano, french horn melody continues}
[Clay] What is segregation?
[Child] I don’t know what seggerashom is.
[Clay] Ah, what is bigotry?
[Child] I don’t know what biggery is.
[Clay] What does hatred mean?
[Child] I don’t know what it is.
[Clay]What is prejudice?
[Child] Um, I think it’s when somebody’s sick.