I was a married thirty six year old with one child, a two year old boy. We lived in Whitehaven, which was not officially in Memphis at the time. Whitehaven was primarily a white neighborhood unlike today. A routine day for me was just staying around the house, doing housework or looking after my son. I wasn't working at the current time due to raising a child. We were at home, listening to the radio, which was how we had heard the news of Martin Luther King Junior's assassination.
The main thing was that they were many people scared and afraid of the possibility of riots and other numerous uproars. Our son had a bedroom at the front portion of the house, but we made him sleep in our bedroom for precautionary purposes. Sure enough, riots broke out and I knew that there may have been a threatening damage caused by the people affected by this assassination. Afterwards, racism grew in Memphis tremendously. Blacks were hostile and felt mistreated as you might expect.
I had no real opinion toward Dr. King. He came to Memphis in the first place to settle the garbage strikes. Martin Luther King was leading marches and advocating peace yet I did not like nor dislike him. I recall the police chasing James Earl Ray, the assassin, but I was actually skeptical whether he was the murderer. It was a very eventful and pivotal moment in Memphis history, yet, this is the extent of my recollection.