On Obama in Indiana, Not Memphis

From NBC's Lee Cowan

FT. WAYNE, IN -- Memphis is in mourning again today. The Lorraine Motel will be lit up by cameras and lights in ways eerily similar to that grim day 40 years ago, when Dr. Martin Luther King lay dead or dying on that simple balcony.

All the presidential candidates will be in Memphis to offer condolences today, save one: Obama. The Illinois senator today chose to speak instead in Indiana -- a long way from the civil rights struggles of the '60s. But his absence, intended or not, may still be a lesson.

It was in Indianapolis on this very day 40 years ago that Robert Kennedy -- campaigning for the Democratic nomination himself -- was dealt the task of having to inform a stunned crowd that Dr. King was gone.

In the midst of the grief, Kennedy begged for calm, as Dr. King surely would have himself. And as cities across the nation were beset with violence in the wake of the King assassination, Indianapolis remained quiet.

It was that moment that Obama commemorated today. Not the shot that rang out, but how some responded in the wake of it. There will be talk of whether his choice was appropriate -- whether the first African American to have a serious shot at the White House should have visited the spot where a generation was changed.

But in the end, the unfinished business of Dr. King still reaches into every corner and every balcony in the country. What that night in Indiana 40 years ago showed, is that it’s sentiment that counts, not geography.