My grandmother, Val C., was thirty years old when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. She and my grandfather, James, lived with their two children, my mom Trina and my Uncle Rusty in the Cherokee subdivision of what is now east Memphis. It was considered the outskirts of town when they moved there. She felt very safe in Memphis, the city was quiet and used to win awards for being so clean. People walked to the market and downtown was where people would dress up and go shopping. Her life was very different from now. She used to run my mom and uncle to and from school, my mom to skate practice, my grandfather to work, and my uncle to baseball and basketball practices and games. She also worked part-time. She is retired now and lives in a small town. 

The person that I interviewed for my MLK project was my grandmother, Faye A. She was 30 years old in the year of 1968, living with her husband and 4 kids in a small house off of Farm Road in Memphis. Life in 1968 seemed to be much slower than life now, since there was a lot less technology and a lot less danger or threats. A typical day for my grandmother consisted of taking care of her kids with school and managing her work life. She describes her life now as "slow" and containing less action than it used to since her kids have all grown up and moved out. 

Margie L. was 32 years old in 1968 and married to Ralph Lawrence. She had 4 children, the youngest of whom was 18 months old. She lived in East Memphis on Messick Cove, a predominantly white suburb, and stayed at home taking care of her infant and ferrying the others to and from school. Her husband Ralph worked at the Associated Agency, a financial planning company that he had founded. She recalls that she and Ralph had moved to Memphis just recently, only a few years ago out of Nashville. 

Jewel S. has lived in Memphis for the majority of her life. In the 1960s, she was living in a house on 4464 Princeton. At this point in her life, she had six children and her life was consumed by them. Mrs. S. loved her kids and loved taking care of them. In fact, typical day in 1968 for her consisted of taking her kids to school and picking them up. Sure, she did other things throughout the day. But her children were her number one priority. Mrs. Sisson's mother also lived with her and was not well. Mrs. S. looked after for her mother and loved taking care of her. This is different from a normal day for her today. 

My great uncle Gene was thirty-two years old at the time of Martin Luther Kings assassination. He lived on Gerald street by Kingsbury high school in Memphis Tennessee. He was building the fence around Graceland for the company he worked for. His family felt safe because there was little to no crime.