It’s 1968 and Don H. is twenty-two years old and has a pretty normal life. He lives at East Parkway and South Parkway. He has just gotten out of military service and started training in the police academy. This takes up most of his day by attending different classes and physical training afterwards. His school is from eight A.M. until three P.M. and physical training is three P.M. until five P.M. School and training occurs Monday through Friday.
Don has a very busy life with school, training, and studying after supper. Don thinks that Memphis has very minimal crime rates. It is a very peaceful place to live and the public school systems are very well run. Don thinks Memphis is an awesome place to live and would recommend it to anyone. Don really enjoys studying at the police academy and can’t wait to go out into the actual field.
The day Martin Luther King was shot was a pretty normal day for Don. Don got up and went to school and training and then came home. After school and training, Don decided that he needed to go to Kroger. He had this weird feeling because everyone was acting really different. They were acting a little more mean and rude. Then, Don went back to his apartment and saw the news. He saw that King had been shot and that is why the people were acting different. His first reaction was thinking of how his life might change, he wondered if he would be taken out of the police academy earlier and put into the streets. Finally, he went to bed as normal and woke up and went back to the academy to find out that they would not be taken out early. However, the next day at the academy they heard about all of the riots that were taking place around Memphis on the police radios. This made them all wonder the same question, what will happen to our city?
The next day was not very different, he went to school, training, and studied after supper. He was not affected emotionally because Don did not even think about King that much. Don had heard and seen a few things about him being at a communist school in the newspaper, but never followed up on it. He had a negative attitude towards him because of all the trouble that followed him everywhere (mini riots). This negative feeling grew because of the week-long riots that followed King’s death. Don knows that he would like him better than those who would represent the minorities in the future years to come, such as Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Sheila Jackson Lee, Barack Obama, and Eric Holder.
In the end, Memphis pretty much stayed the same except for racial relations. Don knew that the tension between blacks and whites grew after the shooting. The shooting also made Don’s summer interesting because of some inner city activities. His police work was more interesting because of the increase of criminal activity in inner city Memphis.