Mike Jensen
I was a junior in college 50 years ago today attending Memphis State University. It was a turbulent time in American history.
I worked on a college newspaper and spent many hours covering the civil rights demonstrations on campus along with the protests against the war in Vietnam.
At about the same time, the city was in turmoil with riots and demonstrations by sanitation workers seeking a fair wage and improved benefits.
The campus demonstrations were remarkably peaceful.
A busload of students was "arrested" for occupying the university President's office and there was some shoving and words exchanged among students protesting the war.
The sanitation workers' protests got out of hand a week earlier with substantial damage reported from bricks thrown into windows primarily in the downtown area of Memphis.
And then the world changed.
The arrival of Dr. Martin Luther King to join in support of the sanitation workers raised the profile of the protest substantially.
For reasons of safety, the college newspaper was told to stand down on coverage of the demonstrations downtown. It seemed like a prudent move as it had little direct impact on the university and our coverage.
King's assassination came not just as a shock but as a world changing event and everyone in that community recognized the tragic impact immediately.
So many memories of that fateful day remain vivid 50 years later.
Memphis was under a form of news blackout. Those of us in the city at the time had to rely on outside information. I called my parents back in Missouri to find out more details than we could find locally.
And then came the fires.
Protesters began burning neighborhoods throughout the city. From our vantage point on the university, we could see massive fires in the Orange Mound section of Memphis.
A group of us climbed up a new library under construction to gain a better view. As far as you could see, fires burned throughout that first night.
All life in the city came to a halt. The city announced a ban on alcohol and gasoline sales starting at 9 p.m., in a attempt to diminish the carnage.
Within a day, National Guard personnel were called into service. The city looked much like a war zone with caravans of National Guardsmen patrolling the city.
There were reports that law enforcement was looking for a white Mustang believed used by the assassin. And in a feeble attempt to help, we walked the neighborhood looking for a white Mustang.
It was not until the following day, that details of the assassination began to circulate.
Our fraternity house opened a 24 hour doughnut and coffee room for the law enforcement personnel working 12 hour shifts. We didn't know what else to do.
And even then, we were met with protests for supporting the police.
I'd like to say it was a week or two before Memphis and her residents began to recover from this permanent stain on the community. But in reality, Memphis has yet to fully recover and perhaps it never will.
King's legacy has grown substantially since that tragic day. We can only imagine how our country would be today with King still at the head of a massive civil rights movement.
The events of 50 years ago are in many ways a blur but in other ways still etched into my memory as if it were yesterday.
We were sad and confused and scared. It didn't matter if you supported the sanitation workers strike or not. It didn't matter if you supported Dr. King or not. It was a tragedy and an injustice and it was heartbreaking for black and white, young and old.
What started as a beautiful Spring day ended in darkness.
I can vividly recall the frustration shared by everyone. There was a communal desire to do something, to say something to illustrate not just our sadness but our repulsion that this dastardly deed had occurred here, where we called home.
Instead, we walked around in shocked disbelief, glued to whatever news source we could find, hoping this was just a nightmare and not reality.
Before long, the police presence was gone, the National Guard was removed and Memphis returned to normal.
But even then, we knew normal was no longer possible.