Valarie C. was a ten year old girl when Martin Luther King Jr. died. She lived in the Clayborn Homes Projects. It was a closed living community. Everyone helped each other in the 1960s. Valarie enjoyed that everyone was nice. Then the day Martin Luther King Jr. died, everyone was sad and angry. It was chaos.
A typical day for Valarie in 1968 was just going to school and coming home and playing until dark. It was different than today. No one cares about each other anymore. People are selfish. They will only help out if it is for money or some kind of reward. In the l960’s and before people would clean your car, babysit your kids, and do anything to help. They would not ask for a reward, or money.
The day Martin Luther King, Jr. died, Valarie was at school. She knew something was not right, all the teachers were packed outside the hall crying. Once her teacher came in, someone asked why was she crying. Her teacher said that Martin Luther King, Jr. had died. She and all her classmates broke out crying. Valarie was scared and confused. Why would someone kill another person. Would the whites attack the blacks or vice versa? All these thoughts were in her head until she got home. Everyone was calling each other to see if friends and relatives were okay. People were outside shooting each other. Everyone stayed behind closed doors for the rest of the night and stared at their TV screens.
During the night, Valarie stayed at home. Some of her cousins wanted to bum some of the whites houses down. She was scared and afraid. On the news, you could see the black people attacking white people. Everyone was killing each other and buming places down. People didn’t know who to trust. Everyone was angry and filled with rage. They were upset because one of the most important people in history had died.
Valarie felt that before Martin Luther King Jr. died that he was a brave and courageous man who stood up for his right and others, and did a lot of things people didn’t do. He stood up and help change the way black people and white people thought of their communities. Once he died, Valarie knew that he was died trying to help both races and a lot of people didn’t know that. He stood up for blacks, but he also wanted to let the whites know that what they were doing was cruel. He did what people thought no one could ever do in that time. He had a dream where “black little girls and boys could play and hold hands with white little boys and girls.” Valarie thinks that after his death- Martin Luther King Jr. changed society. After that happened, the black people changed the way they thought of the white people. The black people and white people attitudes changed. The blacks were angry and upset. They wanted justice for his death. They loved him. They wanted him to be avenged. Everywhere there were protests on all the streets. But after that Valarie saw the world change. That was the way Valarie C. experienced the death of Martin Luther King Jr.