What were you doing 40 years ago today?

NoH8 · April 2008

NoH8 · April 2008

When Martin Luther King was shot and killed. I was only 5- but I remember it as one of the only times I ever saw my father cry. I was accustomed to watching the news and I knew that a really important black man died (that's the way it was explained to me) and it was terrible for the country and the world.

I grew up in a very unintegrated small town. There were no african americans or hispanics within 100 miles, even in undergrad college-- although there was a woman from one of the islands who was black now that I think back. The worst racial slur I ever heard was when a friend refered to a black person as a "negro" when I was 8. I didn't actually meet my first African American at 20 when I moved to the philly burbs.

Almost all that I've learned about King, I learned post undergraduate college. I wish I had been born a decade sooner, so that I could have memories of when King was alive (and the Kennedys). I would have had them,because I watched the news regularly and read newsweek from the time I learned to read (I was a nerd).

The History Channel is going to have some special programming this weekend which I'll be watching- if you have comcast ondemand you can watch it any time.

So, if you remember 40 years ago-- what were you doing?

It's really hard to know he's been gone for more years than he was alive. Really hard. I hope that he is never forgotten and that the importance of his work is never forgotten or minimized.

gsg · April 2008

I was 12...and I don't know why I can't really remember it, weird. I remember Kennedy being shot very clearly when I was in 2nd grade. I remember my uncle putting me up on his shoulders to see Kennedy when he was running for president...I would have only been 4.

Why I can't remember the details of Martin Luther King being shot at age 12 is a complete mystery to me...but as an adult I am in complete awe of him. I wonder how the world would be different today if he hadn't been taken from us so early...he changed it so much in the short time he was here...one can only imagine.

Paulette531 · April 2008

I was living in Biloxi, MS. on the coast singing in clubs in a rock & roll band! Protesting the war and entertaining airmen from Keesler before they left for Viet Nam...doing sit ins tuned in, turned on and not at all conservative!

NoH8 · April 2008

Paulette--- I would love to see pictures of that!

AnnNYC · April 2008

I was a sophomore in high school -- I can't remember exactly the moment when I heard... I think I must have been at home, watching TV -- he was killed right about the time of the evening news.

I remember hearing about JFK's assassination during class, in grade school, and Lee Harvey Oswald while we were visiting friends of my parents a few days later, and watching Bobby Kennedy's funeral being interrupted with the news that James Earl Ray had been arrested for killing MLK...

I was very aware of MLK's activities in Memphis -- I remember seeing his "I've been to the mountaintop..." speech on the news (2 nights before he died). I knew about the bomb threat to his plane. I remember looking in the morning paper (10 hours before he was shot) for updates on Memphis, the Poor People's Campaign, the garbage worker's strike, and MLK... and finding them. I had been aware of King's tremendous foreboding -- and by then there had been such a steady stream of civil rights murders that I was well aware of (the 4 little girls in the Birmingham church bombing in 1963; Medgar Evers in 1963; Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney in 1964; Viola Liuzzo in 1965; Vernon Dahmer in 1966) -- and, while I grew up in northern Wisconsin in an all-white environment much like Amy describes, I had made friends with two black sisters from Milwaukee at a Catholic left-liberal-civil rights/anti-war activity in 1966 and 1967, and visited them at their home, and they too expressed this enormous sense that it was only a question of WHEN something would "happen" to Dr. King, not IF --

so all of that combined to make me feel like the other shoe had dropped, like "here it is" -- pained, heavy -- not shocked. Although maybe "in a state of shock." So I really can't remember "hearing" the news -- I vividly remember being frightened for him in the weeks leading up to his death.

hooptiedoo · April 2008

I was 15, almost 16. It wasn't just shocking and heartbreaking, it was frightening. The president had been assassinated in 1963, and with Martin Luther King's assassination, I thought maybe the world was going to end. Then when Robert Kennedy also was shot, it seemed as if our very society was on the verge of collapse.

iodine · April 2008

I was in Memphis, working in the city/county hospital ER where we treated mostly black patients. I crossed that picket line each day, tanks and armed soldiers on every courner.

I was on a med floor because the ER was closed due to no staff--all black city workers on strike. We had interns mopping floors, residents giving meds and med students errands.

My then bf, now dh, had his first new car and asked me to move it to my apt area since the hospital was downtown and close to all the strike activities.

We later learned that MKL had been shot and taken to St. Joseph's Hospital, where I graduated. He was likely the first black person admitted to that ER.

We expected Memphis to EXPLODE, but it didn't. I'm don't believe it was the Nat'l Guard being there, tho. I sense it was the grief of having MLK killed in our city. No one had the energy/will to do anything like the riots that went on in other places.

I was 25 and since I was living it daily in Memphis, I had little response at the time, mostly fear of riots and death. We all made our way back to the hospital to cover for those who could not get in to take care of patients.

iodine · April 2008

I was a junior year student nurse in 1963, doing a psych rotation in St Louis State Psych.Hospital when JFK was killed. My brother was comming to St Louis to be wined and dined by Budwiser for his work.

We went to dinner and after dinner drinks in a bar (had a fake ID). The town was deathly quiet. Even the bar was quiet. I was wearing white gloves and experienced my first black light.

I and all the students were glued to the TV for the next week. On the wards we ignored our patients almost to watch the latest on TV. It was earth shattering. I truly felt we would begin WWIII.

I am grateful our American system prevented anything like that.

I will never forget the emptiness in my heart.

straykat · April 2008

My former husband and I were leaving Heathrow airport after a wonderful vacation when I saw a man holding a London newspaper with the headline, "Luther King Assassinated" (maybe 'assassinated' is incorrect - it might have been shot, killed, etc.) I asked the man (a Brit) if it was Martin Luther King, and he replied that it was. He was as disturbed by the headline as we. The British Airways captain (BOAC back then) announced the event over the PA. Everyone seemed affected, no matter what the nationality.

sccruiser · April 2008

I was getting ready to graduate from high school. I was dating a navy serviceman who was going overseas to Vietnam. I was working as an usherette at Candlestick Park. My friend and I would ask for the "early shift" so we could change clothes at 9 pm and sit in the stands with the servicemen there in uniform (they got in free if they wore their uniforms). I was also involved in Rainbow Girls--part of the Masons--and was "worthy advisor." One of my projects that year was to assemble hundreds of coffee cans filled with homemade cookies. In those days you could send them overseas to a general delivery box, and they were passed out to the soldiers. Some of my friends wrote to those who sent thank yous.

I also felt like the world had changed too much. I was saddened that this man who had so much to offer this country was killed. I too think that his death and JFK's and Bobby's were devastating to this country and I had little hope that we could follow through on their challenges to us.

Within a few months, I was involved in anti-war protests, and writing letters to congressmen to stop the war. It was a time of divisiveness and ugliness in this country. I still think we are affected by the Vietnam War and the outcomes--a history that is unfortunately repeating itself today.

Anonymous · April 2008

OH geez.....I think I'm one of the youngsters....I was a twinkle in my parent's eye back then. Wasn't born till 74.

I still honor the memory of a great figure in history.

AnneW · April 2008

I was in the fifth grade. I remember MLK's death because of how it affected my mother. But the assination that cut me to the quick came two months later when RFK was shot.

Anne

NoH8 · April 2008

Dotti- you have such a unique perspective. That MLK was perhaps the first black admitted to that ER says so much about the era....

iodine · April 2008

Amy, and about this era as well. I know you cannot possibly imagine the differences in the US from that time to this. Unless you have lived it, no one can. And we who have, don't stop to think of it much.

I saw the first landing on the moon, too. Doesn't mean much now, but at the time--- the whole WORLD held it's breath.

Can you possibly imagine the huge steps that have been taken in race, gender and religious issues. I imagine not.

Some of us in my generation hope that the younger generations will NEVER know how much has changed, and most for the better.

Just as I appreciate the suffragettes and women who burned bras, I wish all could appreciate those who have come before and, when necessary, hacked their way thru the jungle of ignorance and bigotry, to make a path for the rest of us to widen and make clear for forward movement---not to keep carrying the past, but streaking toward the future and it's hope and possibilities.

MLK and JFK were part of FORWARD movement, not rehashing the past.

JMHO

Anonymous · April 2008

I don't remember alot about that day except that our teachers (nuns, mostly) were really freaked out and the news was all about it. At 16 though, I was much too self-absorbed and over-protected in my little middle class cocoon to realize the importance of the man. I regret not paying attention to him before it became too late. But we still have his words and, today, they send chills through me. A friend emailed this link to me. It's a YouTube video of MLK's speech on the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, he could be giving it today. If you have 20 minutes, please watch it. If you only have a few minutes, check out the end....it's his "...free at last..." speech. Very, very powerful!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=b80Bsw0UG-U

~Marin

paige-allyson · April 2008

I was 8 years old and shopping with my mother in the vegetable aisle of a French-Canadian grocery store (bet you never knew there was such a thing) in MA- not far from where I am right now. A man came up and said, in a stunned kind of way, "Did you hear MLK has been killed?" I remember all the adults being very upset, the footage over and over on tv, and being aware that this was a very, very bad thing that had happened.

What were you doing 40 years ago today?

Comments

Categories