"I took a crushed cigarette out of his hand. He didn't want kids to see him smoke."

- Rev. Billy Kyles, who was on the balcony with Martin Luther King Jr. when King was shot.

I saw that quote last night during a documentary about King's death, from an assassin's bullet, on April 4, 1968. Kyles took the pack of cigarettes from King's pocket, too. He's kept them to this day.

And it struck me: Everyone's just a person.

Let this affirmation be our ringing cry. It will give us the courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with lov-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.
- Martin Luther King Jr., Where do we go from here?

From The Telegraph archives.