I lived in Memphis, Tennessee. I did everything in my neighborhood, going to school, church, and shop. Everyone in my neighborhood supported each other. my neighborhood was mostly a black community, so I did not know much about the race issue. In 1968, I lived with my mother, step-father, grandmother, three brothers, and my sister. The children went to school and my mother and step-father went to work, while my grandmother stayed at home and waited for us after school. every single day was just like the next, like today.

My name is Martavius T. and I interviewed my grandmother. My grandmother's name is Linda H. and she was born in 1959 so by this time she was 9 years old. Now, the whole idea is to interview someone who was born before Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered. To short off my grandmother was born in the city of Memphis and she stated that from her point of view things were normal other than than the riot that started at what we call in Memphis downtown.

I was 10 years old when MLK, Jr. died. At the time, I lived in Oates Manor Public Housing, in a predominantly black community. My mom worked as a maid in a private home. She also worked in a laundry mate.

Yes, at the time racial bias was very prevalent. I can remember a car passing as I walked home from school and people yelling "N*****, N*****, N*****." It really didn't bother me because I was used to it. The schools were segregated at that time. The blacks went to one school, and the whites went to another.

The person I interviewed, Valerie C., was only 12 years old , living in Memphis when He passed. She said " During the early evening hours, I was at church with my brother & cousins rehearsing an Easter Speech."

She explained to me, " One of the ladies got together I'm the main sanctuary, & told that Dr. King had been shot & killed. She told us to get our things & go directly home. I lived about four streets away from the church. As we were running home, we saw soliders in tanks riding through our neighborhood. We of course we were scared to death. They were telling is to get off the streets. Some of the soldiers were walking." She recalls "It was a scary scene."

 The day Dr. Martin Luther King was shot and killed I was only eight years old, but I remember vividly everything that happened. I was just entering my house after taking a short trip to get ice cream from the Merry-Go-Bill: a big round truck that sold ice cream. When I was inside, the TV was on, but I did not pay much attention to it because I was enjoying my ice cream. Suddenly I saw my mother fall on the floor screaming frantically, "THEY KILLED HIM, THEY KILLED HIM, OH LORD THEY KILLED HIM!" I did not understand what was happening so I asked her

Jamie woke up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Hastily shuffling around the house, he quickly ate a poorly made bowl of cereal. He had woken up late and his friends had began with out him. Slipping on his shoes, he yelled a goodbye to his mother sitting on her couch. The day didn't feel any different. The breeze still carried it's warm air, the birds still chirped their gleeful song, and Jamie was still beating his friends at every game they played. None of them knew of the disaster to come. Suddenly, a wail came from one of the surrounding houses. Doors from houses all up and down the street flailed open. 

Beth M. was 10 years old when Martin Luther King was assassinated. As a small Caucasian girl in a upper middle class neighborhood, she hadn't learned of Dr. King or his message.  While I had the privilege to interview her, she put emphasis on the fact that her parents weren't raising her to be racist, "My parents weren't overtly racist and they never said black people weren't equal, but there was an attitude of how could they be?" She does however remember that Thursday, April 4 of 1968 was the birthday of her best friend. That night they had planned a birthday slumber party celebration of which their parents cancelled due to unrest in the city. 

It was just an ordinary day just like any other day today on this Thursday of April 4, 1968. I was just four years old at the time, and really had no care in the world. My daily routine was to go to school, come home, and play with neighbors. Life for me was already complicated because I did not understand much about the Civil Rights Movement. As I grew older, my knowledge started to expand and I came to understand it. When Martin Luther King came to Memphis, the town was buzzing about his arrival. This was an exciting time for my parents because they were talking about him all the time. Me being four, I just went with my parents opinions of him which helped me gain respect for him. I was outside playing with my neighbors when my parents told me to come inside at once. This confused me because I thought I did something wrong, but come to find out it was something greater.

Ten-year-old Tracy F. lived in Memphis, Tennessee in the year of 1968. Unlike most children today, Tracy would go outside and play games such as kick the can or hide and seek, since there weren’t any electronics or computers at the time. On Saturdays, Tracy would spend almost all day outside on her bike, only coming inside to eat lunch and dinner. When the weekend was over, Tracy attended a neighborhood school like everyone else her age. She would either walk or ride her bike to school since there were no school buses. School for Tracy was especially different from today’s schools, because her school was segregated. After school was over for the day, 

In the years of Martin Luther King's death and prior to it my Uncle Sammy lived. When MLK died it was a scary and nerve-wracking time. In the 1960s there was a lot of racial tension and it was almost scary to go out in public because you never knew what was going to happen. Riots and protests were frequent and you could not really talk to anyone without bringing up something about MLK or racism. On a typical day my uncle would go to school and then go home.