“In 1968 I would have just turned 27.” Recalled Mr. Jim C. in a recent interview. “I was living just east of Highland Street and south of Park Avenue. Living in Memphis during that time was interesting, because of the focus on Memphis because of the recent sanitation strike. During that time I was teaching at Treadwell at the time, and you could say it was an interesting school, because of it’s mix of working class and upper class, with a few African Americans.” “There wasn’t much racial diversity where we lived, because we pretty much lived in a white neighborhood.” Mr. C. remembered when asked what a typical day in the late 60’s was like. “But growing up was different than when I was older. Growing up in a small town in Arkansas with very few African-Americans I was always afraid of them because they were different. If I was walking down the road, and I was going to meet one on the sidewalk, I would cross the street so I didn’t have to. I was afraid until I was in highschool and my father got me working with an African-American man to learn how to pick cotton. My attitude towards blacks changed that day.”
“The day Dr. King was shot did feel more like a normal day until that night when we heard about the shooting, and turned on the TV and saw that police were everywhere. The police had introduced a curfew. It was 9 or 10, I don’t remember, but it took a while for Memphis to calm down.”
When asked about his feelings towards Dr. King before the shooting versus after, Mr. C. said, “I had only ever really read negative things about Dr. King, because the writers in the paper were all white, and many whites suspected that King was up to no good. I was not aware how pivotal this man was going to be in American history.” Mr. C. mentioned how his life has changed since the assassination of King by saying, “Because of the murder of King, attitudes have changed towards blacks, but even today with the riots and upset in St. Louis and Ferguson attitudes are still being changed. Integration began after King’s assassination, and that changed quite a bit. I remember when the first black man showed up to Highland Street,” the church Mr. C. has ministered at for many years now, “It has been quite a big change since King’s assassination.”