I was thirteen when I heard about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I was in my home in Nesbit, Missississippi listening to the radio in the living room with my weeping mother and upset father. But I'm going to start from the beginning, my name is Larry B. and I was thirteen years old when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed at the Loraine Motel on April 4, 1968. I lived in a little town right outside of Memphis called Nesbit in Mississippi which was mostly consisted of farmland back then. The sanitation strike stood out the most because there were four African American workers that were killed on the back of a sanitation truck in the 1960s. My typical day in the 1960s was a mixture of blacks and whites in both schools and workplaces. All of the schools and workplaces were segregated between the races.
Even all the activities and sports were segregated between the African Americans and Caucasians! I didn't know much about the workplaces back then because I was only thirteen at the time. It's very different in the world today than back in the 1960s where everything was segregated. I remember everything I saw in my household on the day of King's assassination. I remember walking into my living room of our house to see my mother crying and my furious father . The news pronounced Dr. King's death at 6:02 pm. I didn't feel anything different from normal because I knew that Dr. King was not very safe in Memphis with and escape convict following him everywhere he went and eventually shot and killed him. It was a very sad day because I felt like my whole world ended and it was very terrible and devasting.
I believe if the FBI had did there job in catching the escape convict Dr. King would have not been killed. My family and I were very upset and disappointed after the news about King's death. After his assassination, many people began to go on marches and riots but I didn't believe much in the riots because it wasn't going to help bring King back from the dead. Later in the night, I was in my room unable to sleep so began tossing and turning in bed, which was one of the worst nights of my life. The city of Memphis were so upset and disappointed because they had just their a great leader. I thought Dr. King was a fantastic man and that his legacy should live on. I had also learned so many things from his speeches at the age of thirteen.
He taught me in one of his speeches to be the best at everything I do. Life changed after King's death in so many ways. 2 weeks after his death Mrs. King came back to Memphis and led a peace march helping the sanitation workers gain what they wanted. Many people began to act differently after his death as well because they became very violent even though Dr.King stood for non-violent acts. It changed for the worst because many people had revengeful attitudes. During the Dr. King was in Memphis, every time he did a march he would always achieve his goal. No one has ever been able to achieve that since his assassination not even Jesse Jackson! My name is Larry B. and was thirteen when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed at the Loraine Motel on April 4, 1968 and this is my story.