In 1968 my grandmother, Elaine O., was a typical housewife. She lived on Lamphier Road in East Memphis with her husband, Jerry, and three year old daughter, Tina. She was twenty-four and pregnant with her second child. Every day she cleaned, did laundry, and took care of her daughter. She stated that life in Memphis back then was more peaceful than it is now because there was not as much crime and there were more jobs in the city.
On April 4, 1968 my grandmother was doing her daily routine of typical housework around the house. Later in the day around five o'clock she was cooking dinner when she heard on the news that Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot and killed. She was shocked when she heard this. She stopped cooking dinner and went to the living room so she could watch the news. She was surprised that this tragedy had happened in the city of Memphis. Throughout the night, she started to worry about what was going to happen in Memphis as a result of this tragedy. Over the next few days in Memphis she said that riots had started in the city. Her life wasn't affected directly as a result of this tragedy, but the city of Memphis was forever changed.