Israel K. by Ahron B., Margolin Hebrew Academy-Cooper Yeshiva School

During the 1960s, Israel K. lived in Collingwood just outside of Memphis. At the time he was about forty years old and was married with three children. He worked as an accountant for the company that he had. He now lives in Memphis and has three children, nine grandchildren, and over fifteen great ­grandchildren.

“I remember I was at my mothers house helping her when it happened. The next thing I really remember was the riots. They started almost immediately after. My mother and I watched them on the TV. I think it was that night or maybe the night after that the curfew started. We were told that we had to stay indoors after a certain time. I remember having to break the curfew a couple of times to go to work. This was right in the middle of the major tax season so I had a lot of work to do. Other than the curfew, I wasn’t really affected by the assassination. I wasn’t really near the riots. One of my friend's stores got vandalized on Beale street.

“I liked Dr. King and all the things that he was trying to do. I remember when I was a young boy, i would walk through the black neighborhood on my way to school everyday. There was never any violence between us. I actually had some pretty good friends from that neighborhood. I believed that Dr. King was doing the right thing. I agreed with him that segregation should end so that we could all live free together.”