In 1968, David W. lived in Memphis Tennessee. He said, “I lived in a racially mixed neighborhood, although I was confined to my street of mainly white people.”
He recalls the day when Martin Luther King was shot and killed. “I knew who Martin Luther King was because he came to Memphis to defend the sanitation workers and to give a speech. I had heard he got shot later in the evening, but did not understand the importance until the next morning.”
On April 5, 1968 is when everything changed for David W. He says, “I remember seeing the National Guard riding by. The rioting got so bad one street over that I was not allowed to leave my street unless I was going to school. I could not understand why this was happening and I was terrified.”
“On my street, there was not such a big reaction, but one street over, where the black people were living, there were people coming out into the street rioting and marching until police came around. The night after everybody was on pins and needles because Memphis was the center of the whole country. Everybody was focused on Memphis.”
David recalls that after Martin Luther King’s death he felt more endangered.