My grandmother was thirteen years old in the 8th grade when the assassination occurred. It was around 2:15 p.m. when the news got around that Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. My grandmother arrived home and her mother and grandmother were dying and yelling hat Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. People were continuously calling the house.
At around 8:00 p.m., news was put out that he was dead. It immediately got dark outside. People began rioting in Downtown Memphis. The rioting had got so out of control that a curfew was applied for the whole city to be home by 10:00 p.m. Beal street was destroyed. Schools in some neighborhood stores were vandalized.
The next day, more extreme riots and the city of Memphis was destroyed. My grandmother went to school the next morning and none of the Caucasian teachers came to work. New stations on television was the worst city because of the assassination. Memphis, Tennessee went through a bad financial citation. Tourism was down and stax records lost business.
A lot of sadness went to hatred which turned to unbelief. Unbelief turned to tragedy and after tragedy came triumph because a lot of racial issues were settled.