This video is courtesy of the Alaska State Library Historical Collections. It was first posted online in Jan. 2009, on the Alaska state website, Alaska’s Digital Archives (http://vilda.alaska.edu).

The video is of rare footage of a speech by Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy (D-MA), delivered to the Alaska Democratic Party Convention in Sitka on April 7, 1968, shortly after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Standing in his brother Robert, who had been scheduled to speak, Senator Ted Kennedy gave the keynote address.

After introductions by State Representative Eugene Guess and U.S. Senator Ernest Gruening, Kennedy makes heartfelt comments on Dr. King’s influence on the America Civil Rights Movement and gives an update on the civil unrest in Washington, D.C., and in other parts of the country.

The original material is a 1 inch open reel video tape labeled only “Ted Kennedy Sitka”. The tape was transferred to an accessible tape format, digitized and posted online shortly there afterwards . The original video is in near perfect condition for being over 40 years old.

The original link to the video on the Alaska’s Digital Archives can be found at http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/cdmg21&CISOPTR=10053

Damon Stuebner, Media Specialist
Alaska State Library Historical Collections
PO Box 110571, Juneau AK 99811-0571
asl.historical@alaska.gov