John W. grew up in Holly Springs, Mississippi and came to Memphis to attend The University of Memphis (Memphis State at the time). By 1968 he was 26 years old and was living in an apartment in Fox Meadows with his wife. He described his neighborhood as a middle-income, younger neighborhood comparable to Bartlett today. In 1968 he was working as a salesman for a business that sold office machines, and his typical day consisted of visiting office buildings in the areas now known as Whitehaven and Bellevue. He remembers nothing special about the day leading up to King's death. He was at home by himself while his wife was out when he heard. It was around dinner time and he heard about it on TV. His initial thoughts were that he was sorry that a man was killed, but from his perspective, King had been the source of much racial strife. After those thoughts, ones of fear set in about the protesting and violence that might ensue. Sure enough, he remembers that either that night or the next day there was rioting and looting mostly concentrated in downtown Memphis. Mr. W.'s opinion of Dr. King has changed over the years. King went from being someone he viewed as a trouble maker and an instigator of violence to being a great man who made huge progress in the campaign for civil equality. He relates that over the years people have realized what a great man King truly was and now have more respect for the man he was than they did at the time of his death. In his opinion, people would have taken much longer to realize who King was and the good that he was doing had he not been assassinated that night at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.