Mr. Bennie M. was a firefighter in Memphis in 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. Bennie lived in East Memphis with his wife Becky. Bennie remembered how Memphis was easier to get around and enjoy life. Also how life in general seemed to have less problems and was much safer in the 1960s. In 1968 Bennie was still a fire fighter where he would respond to fires and such. Bennie is now retired and works afternoons at Harding Academy after school care. Bennie remembered when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated he was just getting home from work at the fire department and was sitting on his recliner in his living room about to eat his dinner when he turned on the TV and saw the news of MLKs death. Bennie yelled to his wife Becky in the kitchen and said he was gonna get a call and have to go to work soon because MLK was killed. Bennie then explained what he had just learned from the news about Kings death. Just like Bennie said he got the call asking if he could come help. He said he remembered that lots of riots had erupted right after his death and the riots were beginning to get violent and how the riots were not like anything he'd every seen before in his life. Bennie said the night after King was shot that lots of the riots were still going on in different parts of Memphis and that things didn't totally settle down till a few days later. Bennie remembered that King was "a man that tried too and ended up helping his people in many ways." Bennie also remembered that he didn't particularly like King when he was alive because King believed and was pushing for some things that he did not totally agree with but he did say that he "respected what King was trying to do good for his people and how he attempted to keep his people from rioting." After Kings death Bennie said that their were both good and bad changes in Memphis and all over the country. He said "something's got better but some things also got worse in Memphis after his death." Bennie didn't really have much too add about King but what he did have to say was how after Kings death their was a lot of unrest mainly in the city but also all over America and how lots of people from all races were scared of what might happen in the near future.