Teri C. by Kortney C., Harding Academy

"I was 13 years old in 1968. I lived in East Memphis and, I attended Holy Rosary Catholic School. I was in the eighth grade, and after school, I would go to dancing school or play outside with my friends. Memphis was a beautiful city, and there wasn't much crime. "You could sleep with your windows open." There was no technology such as Smart phones. Instead, we used dial-up phones, and we watched black-and-white television. The day that Martin Luther King was assassinated, I was visiting with some relatives with my mother. We heard the news, and we decided that we better go home. I was scared, and my mother was nervous as we drove home because of rioting in the streets. I wondered what was going to happen, and I wanted to be home. That night, there was rioting throughout the streets. I didn't know much about Martin Luther King besides he wanted equality for African-Americans. I knew that he was a preacher, and that he believed in peaceful protest instead of violence. There was a change in society after Martin Luther was assassinated, but it was a slow change that took many years. Now, I believe that people want to carry out Martin Luther King's dream of equality. I think that peoples attitudes have changed over years, but some people still play a race card in situations they don't believe they are being treated equally."