On April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis at the age of 39. After 46 years, people still remember and commemorate this respectful man who strived to advocate for the black's rights and equality in American society. Undoubtably, his efforts and achievements back then incurred huge resentment from the pro-slavery and those who were afraid of their former slaves becoming equal citizens as they were. King sacrificed his own life for the progress of civil rights movement toward a more equal society by a non-violence belief.
Vernon was five years old, living in east Memphis where he still lives right now when King was assassinated. From his description of the environment and his life alike in 1968, the place he lived were mostly white residents, barely any black person could be seen in this part of Memphis. From his knowledge, blacks and whites lived in completely different world although both living in Memphis. He also described that transportation was very few back then, no buses could be found. As a five-year-old kid, Vernon's life was mostly around playing like most of the children would do. He recalled that the parents back then didn't put as much supervision on children or worry about children's safety issue when their kids's are playing on the street. In other words, the crime rate wasn't as high as it is today. Speaking of other differences of the past and now, Vernon claimed that everything today is different from the past: there wasn't so much technology involved in people's life before, but they did have TV. The interesting fact he said about his favorite cartoon back then was the Bugs Bunny which I have no recall of. On the next question, Vernon recalled the night of King's assassination: there was a curfew in Memphis and even his neighborhood although his house was far away from King's settling place. He remembered that back then some people were afraid that the black people were about to tear up the city as a big riot was undergoing in downtown Memphis. Again as a kid, he had not have much emotion on the incident except for a little madness because the curfew that lasted for three to four days hampered him to get the toys that he liked from stores. Also, he honestly recalled that he did not know who Martin Luther King was before his assassination as a little child. Besides, he also believed that King's death had the long effect on the civil rights movement and people's views on black people since then.