April 4th, 1968, What Happened That Day?
This date is another example of the terrible happenings in the month of April. On this date Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. in 1968. The assassination caused great problems for the United States. Many cities had riots, including deaths and injuries to guilty as well as innocent citizens.
On this date I was shopping in a local Memphis drug store when the announcement of Dr King’s assassination, as well as the local police chasing a white Mustang with the assassin driving was made. Later, we were told to go home as there was a mandatory 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew starting that night. When going to work the next day we had to get out of our car to remove burned debris and when we got to work the company had constructed a tall chain link fence around the outside of the property and had an armed guard.
Rioting continued for days in Memphis as well as 100 other cities. According to reports, 20,000 were arrested, 43 killed and 3,000 injured.
How did it all begin? On February 1st, a cold, rainy day in Memphis, two garbage collectors, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, sought some protection from the weather by getting in the back of their garbage truck which was discovered had a malfunctioning trash compactor. The two men were crushed to death.
No one would help the families of the two men. At the time they were earning $1.00 per day, had no insurance, working second jobs and some were on welfare.
Local workers and supporters went on strike on February 12. With hardly any response from local government to help the workers gain more pay and insurance, local church leaders contacted the NAACP to convince Martin Luther King to come in support of the garbage strike.
On March 28th, King arrived in Memphis for a march, The march became violent, a 16-year-old was killed, 64 injured and 300 arrested. King was rushed from the scene, but vowed to return to lead a peaceful march.
He returned on April 3rd, giving his famous speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”—in it he speaks of dying. The next day while preparing to go to dinner, an assassin cut him down. He was dead by that night.
Later garbage workers got pay raises, insurance and union recognition
One of the saddest times in turbulent April.