Eighty year old Mr. Turner was one of the legendary 1,300 city sanitation workers who walked off the job in February of 1968. At the time he was thirty-four years old. Mr. turner welcomed me into his home for a live interview. He had a large collection of awards, plaques, certificates, newspaper articles and pictures with famous people including President Barrack Obama. I asked Mr. Turner where was he the night before Dr. King's assassination. He informed me that he was at Mason Temple the night before and was able to witness Dr. King' s last speech, "I've Been to the Mountain Top." He told me that he was there with family members. He stated that he had heard Dr. King speak several times but there was something so different about that speech last night. He said it was as if Dr. King knew it would be his last speech. That night after the speech the ride home with his family was complete silence. The speech was so powerful that it left everyone speechless.
The next day while eating at the Gay Hawk Restaurant two white policemen that were pretty good friends of his told him that Martin Luther King had been shot but he was not dead yet. Later that day he found out he was dead. He stated that was one of the darkest days of his life. He stated the African Americans as well as some whites were saddened. People were crying and mourning all over Memphis. The sanitation workers felt that their fight was over because their leader was dead. African Americans felt defeated. Some were mad and all were sad. I proceeded to asked Mr. Turner to describe his night after king was shot. He replied saying that it was very dark, sad was at the Gay Hawk Restaurant. The black community was really upset. There were riots and violent protests. Mr. Turner said that you could see how furious the black community was by looking at their faces.
Before his death, Mr. Turner says that Martin Luther King was very powerful. He admired him so much. He stated he had met him and he was a really nice. He felt that he was God sent. There were so many good things he was trying to do for the community. It was a time for the African American people to pull together to help one another.
After he died he felt like their leader was dead so their calls were dead too. He saw how much Martin Luther King meant to the black community because people from everywhere came together. After the death of Dr. King the white ministers and the black ministers came together on behalf of the strikers and they were able to bring the strike to a stop with better benefits.
After Martin Luther King's death life changed for Memphians. Mr. Turner says that the white people started hiring African American employees in their businesses. The jobs were back door jobs. The black workers would be hired but they would be hidden from the public. People's attitudes obviously changed a lot after Dr. King's death. I asked him did his wages go up after the strike. He stated he got a ten cent raise. He stated that he felt that something's got better and some things got worse. Overall, he felt that Dr. King death was the turning point for the Civil Rights Movement.
When I asked Mr. Turner is there anything he would like to add, he told me that we've pretty much covered it all. This has taught me a lot about the assassination of Martin Luther King and the impact of his life an death has made in every American's life. It was so exciting hearing the story from a historical figure who witnessed history in the making. It was great for me learn from a person instead of reading in a history book or Google.com.