April 3rd , 1968, Sarah Ann
It was normal for Sarah to go to school everyday and make good grades. She understood that people that were not her skin color did not get an education like she did so she took advantage of that. Usually when she got home she would look out her window and today was no different. She hears the chants and watches the crowd of Negroes protesting as usual. She hears them so much she got use to hearing them everyday. Some nights she would hear her father come in and say things like “Honey, those there Negroes just won't give up. We will just have to beat them since some have built the courage to talk back.
Read More]oyce L. is my grandmother. She lived during the time of the civil rights movement. Around the time of 1968 she was about 18 years old. At the time, my grandmother was in both high school and nursing school. She said that during that time things were really difficult for African Americans. There were all kinds of prejudices in Memphis and it was a very segregated city. Segregation, in a way, stood out the most in the city. She recalled a number of times having to sit in restaurants basements just to eat a meal or even sitting in the worst part of movie theaters. However, things looked like they were going to change when a man named Martin Luther King Ir. came onto the scene.
Read MoreMr. S. lived in Whitehaven and only white liven in Whitehaven during the 60s. . He was only in the 9th grade when Dr.King was assassinated. He remembered they closed down school because of the assassination. It was complete chaos. He couldn't remember if he was 15 or 16 when it happened. He remembers images and sound of people screaming and those cried. A lot of people that were sad and were on the scene when it happened.
Read MoreLife for Wilson in the l960s was simple and happy. Wilson lived in Memphis, Tennessee in a small neighborhood in a nice and cozy one-story house. During the l960’s there was much racism, and African Americans were protesting and demanding equal rights. Wilson remembers most of the life changing events that took place in this period of time. The black sanitation workers were protesting to be treated equally and to have better Working conditions. African-Americans wanted change, and they wanted change right then. One man that stood out for all African Americans was Dr. Martin Luther King jr. Dr. King would soon change how African Americans were treated, and his march for freedom would be woven throughout the south. Dr.King was a great man who did not fight against whites with violence; he only peacefully “fought against them with words,”,. The following events that took place would change the future America forever.
Read MoreAt the time, living in East Memphis in the l960’s was the calmest and most peaceful time, until 1968. Living in Memphis at the age of eighteen was not the easiest time of the decade. Years before, the streets were calm, safe, and you could ride your bike at night without getting kidnapped. People would go on walks during the day. Mrs. M.'s parents were really prejudice about the African American people. Her parents did not want those people to be around their daughter. She never went to school with them because of the segregation. There was no crime and barely any poverty. Young Mrs. M. lived on the corner of Hollywood and Chelsea. Everything was always very peaceful and very quiet. Mrs. M.’s life in 1968 was a normal as any other eighteen year old girl. She was a freshman at the University of Memphis. The University of Memphis was Where she met her husband. After six months of dating, Mr. M. had gotten drafted to fight in the Vietnam war.
Read MoreIn 1968 Linda C., now Linda K., lived with her parents in Cromwell Parkway village area. She had moved to Memphis from Philadelphia in 1963, about five years before. It was a nice neighborhood at the time, in fact, Memphis in the 60’s was nationally known as the “cleanest city” in the country. Having moved from a big northern city where most people lived in “row houses,” with small back yards, if they even had one; to Linda, this was like living in a suburban area- there were lots of trees, a nice green city, and back then, people would even leave their homes with the doors unlocked. The mayor of Memphis in 1968 was Henry Loeb; so just to put things into perspective, it is completely different from the Memphis we all know as of today as being one of the worst cities in crime.
Read MoreSegregation was an uprising issue in the l960’s. Although some people were struck right in the middle of it, they were not aware of it, until the year 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Racial tension was stronger then it had ever been before. Arnold was 18 years old in 1968. He lived in an area of Memphis called the Orange Mound community on Button Street. Orange Mound was a nice, quiet, residential neighborhood at the time. He along with many others were not aware of the segregation, marches and boycotts, that were happening in some of the southern states.
Read MoreGrowing up poor during the 1960s did not make life easy for Helen H. Helen remembers vividly how difficult it was for her family to earn enough money to support them. Racial divides among blacks and Whites also made life, during her childhood, challenging. Going to school on Mondays after Dr. King was shot was not a priority for her. Every Monday after Dr. King was shot was called Black Monday. The black kids would not go to school.The ones who did go on that day got in fights. Not only would they get in fights with white people but with black people, too. Due to this unfair treatment the black people would break into stores and sometimes set them on fire.
Read MoreLife was rough in the 1960s for Patricia E., a young African American lady. She lived in Claiborne Homes which was a public housing project, and she was one of five children. Everything was separated then such as water fountains, restaurants, and bathrooms. In that time period, there was very little integration. Once, her mother went to purchase shoes for her family at a nice store called Goldsmith’s, which was very popular store in the 60’s. African Americans were not even allowed to enter the store, so her mother had to trace their feet to tell the store clerk their sizes and hand the tracings to the store clerk who would go and bring the shoes to them. Blacks could only enter the movie theatre through a back entrance whereas the white people could use the front entrance. She was supposed to sit behind the last white person on a bus. Frequently, rude, disrespectful white people would sit in the back of the bus which would force her to stand. Although it has harsh and difficult, this was the way of life for Miss E., but it taught her how to survive.
Read MoreMary Ann G. walked out of her family’s one-story painted brick house, in a rushed manner, out of fear she would miss the bus. When her tired legs eventually reached the bus stop, she noticed the bus had just pulled up. As her change fell into the can for bus admission, she looked up, noticing a smiling black woman seated in the front of the bus. African American’s rights had just been changed. There were no more black and white drinking fountains, no more blacks being forced to sit in the back of the bus. Yet Mary Ann had witnessed racial discrimination. She had seen innocent blacks going to jail for participating in sit ins and peaceful protests. When she saw these awful stories unfolding on her family’s box-shaped television screen, she felt compassion. Mary Ann questioned herself, “Why are these harmless people being tortured because of their skin color?” At age eighteen, she was usually preoccupied with her friends, classmates, and boys, and she had never really thought about this question much before.
Read MoreIn 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Joy R. was sixteen years old in l968, a sophomore in high school. She lived in Central Gardens, which is located in Midtown. Central Gardens, an older area of Memphis, had big houses and trees. Joy was a teenager in a Catholic, all girl high school and she attended a neighborhood church. In the l960’s, there were issues regarding the rights of the people in Memphis. An aroma of change lingered in the air, as if about to collapse on the city at any moment. There was no instant communication, like television, and the only phones were at home connected to the wall.
Read MoreIt was a dark and scary night in Memphis, Tennessee Janis F. was at Lawanda Lake store with her grandmother.They were shopping very quickly so that they could get home and see Martin Luther King make another speech. While shopping a white man went past saying, “They just killed that nigger.” That Nigger was Martin Luther King. Janis and her grandmother dropped their things and ran home. When they got home, all they did was watch the television the whole night. In Memphis, Tennessee, they had many rules for the African Americans. They were not allowed to go to restaurants unless they went around the back. They were to go the Zoo only on Sundays. They were allowed to only sit in the balcony of the theater. They also had to sit at the back of the bus. Everyone had a curfew.
Read MoreIn the l960’s Judy C. was a young lady. To be precise, she was only 18. She was going to graduate that year, so that year was an eventful year for her. She went to Immaculate Conception High School on Central Street. She lived in East Memphis, and her father owned a liquor store farther in the city. Things were more elementary because of less crime. People minded their own business. Crime was not an issue, so no one had to be worried as often as they do now. It was comfortable to live in Memphis back then for Judy.
Read MoreAge in 1968 : 18
Where did you live ? What was is like? What stands out about living in Memphis in the 1960s ?
- I lived in Memphis ,TN . At the time it felt normal at the time . Nothing really stood out really , but at the time I was just a teenager even though I could understand my surroundings and things felt normal and there was nothing abnormal at the time.
Read MoreAge in 1968: 16
Where did you live? What was it like? What stands out about living in Memphis in the 1960s?
“Well I actually lived in Memphis at the time, specifically on 7th street. At time it wasn’t much crime, more of a laid back city. However, something that stood out about living in Memphis in the 1960s was the whole MLK movement, the peaceful protests and boycotts... A lot of people protest for what they believed in at the time by the influence of Martin Luther King. “
Describe your life in 1968. What was a typical day like for you in 1968? School? Work? How was it different from today?
Read MoreInterviewee Name: Lenda D.
Age in 1968: 13
Where did you live? What was it like? What stands out about living in Memphis in the 1960s?
In the 1960s I lived in Fayette County. The African Americans and whites just started going to school together. There was a lot of discrimination going on. We weren’t allowed into some stores and there were certain water fountains that we had to drink from. There was also a lot of name calling going on.
Describe your life in 1968. What was a typical day like for you in 1968? School? Work? How was it different from today?
Children did not have the opportunities that they have today. Children have the internet and other sources to help them become educated. Children in today’s society can have any education they want as long as they put forth the effort to achieve it.
Read MoreInterviewee Name: Dollie A.
Age in 1968: 14 yrs. Old
Where did you live? What was it like? What stands out about living in Memphis in the 1960s?
I lived in the Cleaborn Holmes. What stood out about was going downtown. There were so many stores...and you had Beale Street. Downtown was like a mall to us.
Describe your life in 1968. What was a typical day like for you in 1968? School? Work? How was it different from today?
We had good life in ’68, our teenage life was the best. After leaving school, we went straight outdoors and stayed out until 7:00. Then we would go indoors, take a bath, and go to bed. I enjoyed school, school was fun. We never had school busing, we went to school in our walking area. There was really no crime
Read MoreMr. Allan K. was living in Memphis, Tennessee during the 1960’s when the Martin Luther King assassination took place. He lived three blocks from the Margolin Hebrew Academy. What stood out to him about living in Memphis in the 1960’s is that everything was really segregated.
"In the 1960’s I had a lot of things going on," said Mr. K. "I was the national president of NCSY. I went to the Margolin Hebrew Academy and was in school until 6:15." He told about how back then the school was coed and he was in the second graduating class of the school. "When I was sixteen years old I learned how to type on a typewriter. I rode my bike to school."
Read MoreAaron Thomas was a student in east Memphis in 1968. In the 1960’s the AfricanAmerican community in the US was fighting for their equal rights. Their marches, boycotts, sit ins, and protests affected most of the country. Memphis was no exception.
What was life like in Memphis during the 1960’s?
“I was a student in the 1960’s. I remember hearing about different protests and other things going on. The biggest thing I remember was when we heard about Kennedy.
Read MoreMark: Where did you live? What was it like? What stands out about living in Memphis in the 1960’s?
Barbara: I was 16 years old and I lived in Whitehaven, and it was a very scary time because there was a lot of racial unrest and obviously when Martin Luther King was shot it was an extremely bad time. There were protesters and riots in the streets and I just remember particularly myself at 16 years old I don’t think I really realized the severity of the situation and like most 16 year olds I was pretty self-absorbed and I had just gotten my drivers licence and my mother would not let me take the car out to go driving because of everything going on in the city when Martin Luther King was shot. And of course I was really upset, but looking back now I can definitely understand why my parents wouldn’t let me go out at night during that time.
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