My great uncle Gene was thirty-two years old at the time of Martin Luther Kings assassination. He lived on Gerald street by Kingsbury high school in Memphis Tennessee. He was building the fence around Graceland for the company he worked for. His family felt safe because there was little to no crime.
When he was younger he did what he wanted when he wanted to do so. Everyday except Sunday he got up around 5:30 a.m. He had fairy children and two of them played sports. He would go to their practices and games. He enjoyed being with his family most of all things. His time at that point was very different from today because he said " today I am seventy-nine and I'm a lot slower than he was. He is retired and only works odd and end stuff. His children are grown so he goes to his grandchildren games. Crime is way worse than it's was before. He doesn't like going out at night because crime is that bad.
The most memorable thing when Dr. King was assassinated was seeing a white nurse being dragged from her car and beaten by black men she ended up in the hospital. The people tried to block the road but, we spread right through it. The time was very uneasy him and his white friends felt very threatened. He felt very fearful of his family's welfare. He really had no thoughts about Dr. King and his people he thought trouble followed him everywhere he went. He did not feel like he was a peaceful man and he wished he would not have died especially in Memphis. He heard about the assassination while he was working on the first Tennessee building on Madison and second street. He reacted to the situation when his boss told them to go home. They all knew it was going to be trouble. He went home as fast as possible to protect his family. That night they watched the news and there were a bunch of bad reports around the city. The black community was very upset with what happened. The city went crazy. He did not go to work the next day.
The next day he got a few phone calls from family and friends with uneasy feelings. Before the kings death he thought trouble followed him wherever he went with no peace. He thought he was a publicity seeker. After his death he said it wasn't a martyr. He felt he didn't help his people. After his death he carried a gun in his boot holster for safety. People were way more race oriented after the death of Dr. King. He felt as if he had good black friends at work but after that day they changed the way they looked at him. People's attitude around the city changed because we seemed like Memphis is now divided.
He would like me to add that in this he did not want to come across as a racist. He was born on a farm and very poor. The only friends he had was aunt Mami's eight children who were black. They loved each other and did not see color. If he dropped dead tonight he would be honored that his friend was a pallbearer who happen to be black. He feels like the death of Dr. King in Memphis made him miss out on a lot of friends lives he had or would've had that were black. He feels it wasn't on his part.