I lived in Memphis in the 1960s. My family lived in the same home that I live in now. It's a small house in Frayser. The area was somewhat poor, but it was fine for my situation. However, I did feel unsafe very often. Memphis was obviously very segregated during this time, and the tensions were high in the city. There was a lot of shooting and police violence. Each morning, I went to work at Pee Dee's Packing Company where I packed dry seasoning. After work, I drove home, but I was always very nervous because of the shootings. Also, people were throwing bricks frequently in the streets. I had other people in the car sometimes, and I was worried for their safety.
On the day that Dr. King was assassinated, I remember that I was afraid to pick my daughter up from work on the other side of town, so my son rode with me. He brought a gun with him in the car. I was scared to death. That night, I heard about the shooting through the news on television. The onlookers looked absolutely horrified. First, King's supporters were very sad. They were crying for a long time, then they became angry. I was scared so I stayed inside with my kids. My husband was a trucker, so I told him to take his license plate off because they were shooting at truckers. I would say that what happened in the city that night is similar to what happened in Ferguson recently.
I didn't about Martin Luther King much before he was killed, but I felt like he was trying to take care of his people. He was very brave during a time when the threat was very real. After his death, I became very sad when I thought about him. Life didn't change too much for me because I worked in a place where whites and blacks worked together in harmony and we all got along fine. People were definitely still nervous about public safety. I was always very afraid to drive when there were so many shootings. Those were very different times in the city of Memphis.