Things were pretty black and white for me in the psychedelic '60s. Right and wrong and good guys and bad guys were very clear in my idealistic preteen eyes. And I knew we lost one of the good guys on April 4, 1968.
The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 40 years ago opened my eyes to the injustices in our country.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a hero for convincing people to put their bodies on the front line in the war for civil rights. I was only 7 years old when I heard his "I Have a Dream" speech but I remember being moved after seeing crowds of black and white people marching together.
I was too young to be a hippie or an antiwar protester but I was used to seeing people on the evening news taking to the streets to make their opinions known about the Vietnam War and civil rights. As a child, I saw black people being beaten by police and attacked by dogs for wanting to sit at a lunch counter. The fact that people suffered without fighting back showed even more how senseless the abuse was.
My parents explained to me that there were some places in our United States where black people had to give up their seats on buses to white people. It just wasn't right.
After Dr. King's death, I saw that these injustices didn't just happen in the South. My neighborhood was mostly white and, when I went to school in fall 1968, I noticed it was only the black kids who got bused out of their neighborhoods to go to junior high school.
It was a thinly concealed secret that Sammy Davis Jr., Billy Eckstein and other black performers weren't allowed to spend the night in the Las Vegas resorts where they were featured as headliners. They had to go across town for accommodations on the West Side.
I would rather remember people on happier occasions but Dr. King was killed on my 12th birthday and Robert Kennedy was shot two months later on my best friend's 12th birthday. A lot of people lost hope in 1968 but I have to think a lot of people had their eyes opened as well.
-- People Editor Sharlene Irete may be reached at sirete@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 210.
'Abraham, Martin and John'
by Dick Holler, sung by Dion
Anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed lotta people but it seems the good they die young
I just looked around and he's gone.
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walking up over the hill
With Abraham, Martin and John.
