Sam P. was 17 when Martin Luther King was shot. He lived in Fraser, Memphis which was predominately a blue collar town with a lot of middle class. There wasn't much racial tension as long as you worked hard and were a good person. He was a normal teenager at the time who went to school and then immediately to work. He worked hard at his family owned business and was an integral part of the company. After work he would go and hang out with his friends until about 10 to 11 at night. One day on his way to work he heard that Martin Luther King had been shot. When he got to work his boss told him that they would have to close at 7 p.m and that he needed to get home immediately upon leaving work. The reason his boss instructed him to get home quickly was due to the many riots that went on after Martin Luther King was shot. Walking around the downtown city streets was a very dangerous place to be following Dr. King's assassination. The riots lasted for 2-3 days, but luckily protesters never looted or vandalized his place of business. Just down the street; however, there was a lot of damage done to business and buildings. Downtown was filled with riots and violence. After all the rioting settled down and the dust settled, Sam realized that not a lot changed for him business wise. He also noticed that his normal clientele, for the most part, acted as they normally had. He did notice the people that were still upset about the shooting continued to cause problems and were a nuisance. For the most part though, things were pretty much back to normal. One thing that he does regret is that he always considered Martin Luther King to be a trouble maker before his death. Later on as he learned more about him, he realized he was trying to bring peace and stand up for his people.