“I lived in Memphis for half of the 1960s. I lived on 1002 Hawthorne Street. Memphis was very musical. There was Elvis and you could take a bus to go downtown and go shopping like at Goldsmith’s. At the time it was very peaceful, like everyone knew their place. Although I did see colored bathroom signs and colored water fountain signs. The public schools were segregated and most in most neighborhoods, the Catholics and the Jews all lived close together. 

When Steve H. lived in Memphis in 1968, he was 20 years old and attending the University of Memphis. He had lived at several places in midtown and enjoyed the college atmosphere with many influences of music in the area. He was not a Christian at the time and was talking difficult classes at the University. Between semesters, he decided to work for an electronics company. At this point, there had been many controversies between the city workers and officers. 

I was twenty-six years old and living in midtown when Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. I remember how Memphis was very segregated back in the 60's. I didn't go to school with anyone in the opposite race until I graduated from central high school. My daughter and I both agreed that it was more fun back then to be a teenager because of how strict everything became after the assassination.

I grew up in a very liberating point of history, the 1960's. Many things happened in this time period. Such as, women's liberation movement, civil rights movement, and the U.S.'s participation in the Vietnam war. Growing up in Mississippi, I had very obscure views of African Americans, and more specifically Martin Luther King Jr.. 

     I attended Southern College of Optometry (SCO)as a fourth year student in 1968. SCO's campus is located in midtown on Madison Avenue. As a student, five cumulative exams were given to you on a Friday at the end of the year, and five the next Friday.  So after studying the Thursday before exams, my friend and I decided to take a "study break" and go see the newest James Bond movie. As we were leaving the theatre, a snow storm came throughout Memphis. I later found out that this snow storm set the record as the third largest snowfall in Memphis. SCO decided to cancel school for Friday, so consequently exams were pushed back. 

It’s 1968 and Don Howarth is twenty-two years old and has a pretty normal life. He lives at East Parkway and South Parkway. He has just gotten out of military service and started training in the police academy. This takes up most of his day by attending different classes and physical training afterwards. His school is from eight A.M. until three P.M. and physical training is three P.M. until five P.M. School and training occurs Monday through Friday.

Don has a very busy life with school, training, and studying after supper. Don thinks that Memphis has very minimal crime rates. It is a very peaceful place to live and the public school systems are very well run. Don thinks Memphis is an awesome place to live and would recommend it to anyone. Don really enjoys studying at the police academy and can’t wait to go out into the actual field.

            The day Martin Luther King was shot was a pretty normal day for Don. Don got up and went to school and training and then came home. After school and training, Don decided that he needed to go to Kroger. He had this weird feeling because everyone was acting really different. They were acting a little more mean and rude. Then, Don went back to his apartment and saw the news. He saw that King had been shot and that is why the people were acting different. His first reaction was thinking of how his life might change, he wondered if he would be taken out of the police academy earlier and put into the streets. Finally, he went to bed as normal and woke up and went back to the academy to find out that they would not be taken out early. However, the next day at the academy they heard about all of the riots that were taking place around Memphis on the police radios. This made them all wonder the same question, what will happen to our city?

            The next day was not very different, he went to school, training, and studied after supper. He was not affected emotionally because Don did not even think about King that much. Don had heard and seen a few things about him being at a communist school in the newspaper, but never followed up on it. He had a negative attitude towards him because of all the trouble that followed him everywhere (mini riots). This negative feeling grew because of the week-long riots that followed King’s death. Don knows that he would like him better than those who would represent the minorities in the future years to come, such as Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Sheila Jackson Lee, Barack Obama, and Eric Holder.

            In the end, Memphis pretty much stayed the same except for racial relations. Don knew that the tension between blacks and whites grew after the shooting. The shooting also made Don’s summer interesting because of some inner city activities. His police work was more interesting because of the increase of criminal activity in inner city Memphis.

Carrie H. was 25 years old in 1968 during King's assasination. Carrie lived in Memphis,TN at the time and was married she says this because few African Americans were married at the time. Carrie was teaching at Manassas Highschool where many of the students' fathers worked for the sanatation department. Memphis was highly segregated. Carrie graduated from Memphis State University which is now University Of Memphis which had integrated in 1959. Jobs were limited for African Americans with or without a college degree. Middle schools and Highschools were still segregated.