Remembering the Day Martin Luther King was Shot

 

I was a new teacher in East New York, Brooklyn,in an elementary school.This was rough very poor neighborhood of black and Puerto Rican families. When the news of his death became known rioting began in the streets outside the elementary school. We had heard that a white boy in the high school 4 blocks away had been knifed and killed in the bathroom. The mob was still gathered around our school after the children had gone home.

We were inside ,all of us white, all …of us scared for our lives.What was our crime? It didn’t matter because a sacrificial lamb had to be slaughtered..so to speak..for the death af their savior.a great humanitarian, killed by a white man. We were hostages and not until many hours after dark did we get the news that Sonny Carson was outside asking all to desist and go home.He was the head of CORE and he spared us that fatefull day.
Than came the assassination of another Kennedy. RFK. Only a short time after Dr. King. He wanted racial equality..but angered labor unions and Herbert Hoover with his policies.
I am an artist and not a politician. Today is the inauguration of President Obama. Many Americans believed the election of a black President would bring the country into a period of peace and prosperity but it has not. Let our next great leader step up to the plate! Perhaps Obama is the one..only time will tell. in the mean time, I’m hoping.

1 comment

  1. “The Fortune Teller’ by George De la Tour..painting above captures something here.. a great image.

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