Mr. Al T. lived on Shady Grove Road in Memphis,TN during the 1960’s, when Dr. Martin Luther King got assassinated. There was a lot of racism and discrimination during this time period. This period of time, The Civil Rights Movement, was a time where whites were treated much better than blacks. The black community had no respect and very little rights.
“It was a regular Memphis day and I was downtown carrying along with life. I was a lawyer and still am to this day. I was downtown at the time he got shot. In the 1960’s, blacks in Memphis were not treated the way they should've been. I was in defense for the blacks when I saw wrongdoings were taking place. A typical day for me was I got up, went to my job downtown, had to be in court and if I didn't have to be in court I would work in my office. I went to school and was brought up in a black neighborhood. My father owned a store what was called a “nice” merchandise with good stuff with no outrageous prices.The family store burnt down in 1954 and then my family moved out east. At that time we lived above the store until it burned down. It was on the end of Thomas Street and Life Street. I attended a grammar school called Guthrie, that is still standing in operation today.
“Back then was different from the way people are today. African Americans have gained some economic advantage and did not have the type of jobs they have today. When I was growing up I did not see African Americans with anything over a menial job. Today for example, if you go to the airport even when it was very busy years ago, almost ninety percent are African Americans. That was not true back in the fifties. In about 1964 there was a decision called the Brown decision where African Americans were given certain rights. For example, in the fifties if you went downtown to a show at the Orpheum, the African Americans would have to enter through a different entrance than the white people did. At the Orpheum that is still there today, the African Americans had to enter on Beale Street exit side and walk up three flights of stairs and if they were going to a show they had to go sit in a special section.”
“It all got done away with in 1964. When Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, separation like that was no longer in existence. He was a very popular civil rights leader on the national front. He lived in Atlanta and was in Memphis several times. He attended a meeting with Henry Loeb, who I happen to know very well myself. On the day that he got killed, it seemed like a regular day to me. There was a parade that afternoon where they were marching down Main Street peacefully, and the parade was over in the afternoon when King got shot. He was on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel and James Ray shot him from a bathroom from a building right across the street. James Ray had a direct shot at King across the street. He had been to Memphis probably three or four weeks before to attend a rally or maybe meet with Henry Loeb, and it was not successful, so the he was back in town for the march. Everyone was shocked when they heard that King was shot. There was some protesting by the African Americans afterwards. After, people in Memphis were pretty much the same. Schools were white and black but predominantly African American. I always admired King and was very impressed with him. For a short time before, he made a famous “I have a dream” speech.
The Civil Rights Movement was a big deal back then and was a big time. It had started then and is still going on I think. There are some changes being made but nothing drastically changed in Memphis in my opinion in the aftermath. James Ray escaped Memphis and I am not sure exactly how they found out, but he got arrested in London at an airport.
“There was never a trial, but he plead guilty and had to go to prison. He tried to get a trial but the courts turned the request down. He was a national hero that got killed, so Memphis was highlighted in all the stories so it would be cool to go in the archives and see everything. No one ever dreamed that Martin Luther King would be assassinated because he was participating in the Civil Rights Movement and he was not killed by a Memphian.”