#MLK50 … Little Did I Know
Thursday, April 4, 1968, was a day that many will not soon forget.
The nation was embroiled in war, protest, and shifting paradigms. For me, it was the beginning of the most important period of my life.
In the spring of 1968, I was thirteen years old. My family and I lived in an interracial enclave in the Chicago suburbs. It was a unique community, quite idyllic really, with open spaces, large lots, and a mix of races and religions. As a kid concerned with Cub Scouts and Little League, tree houses and snow forts, it was safe, comfortable, and familiar. However, on the brink of my high school years, change was on the horizon. That spring, our family prepared to move from Chicago, the only home we had ever known, to Memphis, Tennessee. For me, this prospect was a culture shock of the first order.
On the evening of March 28th, one week before April 4th, I was watching the TV news and ruminating about our upcoming move to Memphis. The anxiety around teenage years was bad enough. Now my apprehension was exacerbated by uncertainty. According to news reports, we were moving to a very polarized and, to my mind, potentially dangerous place.
For my family, all roads seemed to be heading South. My brother was performing a college internship with the Delta Ministry in Mississippi. Idealistic renegade that he was, Brother was down there supporting voting rights and school integration activities. When the phone rang that evening, it began a series of events that changed my life forever.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was in Memphis leading a march in support of striking sanitation workers. The march devolved into a riot and a sixteen year old boy was shot and killed by police. When news of the outbreak reached my brother and his comrades 100 miles away, they immediately drove to Memphis, certain that this was the beginning of the anticipated “revolution”. By the time they arrived in the city, they were unaware of the imposition of a dusk to dawn curfew. You can guess what happened next. That fateful phone call informed my parents that he had been stopped and roughed-up by police. He was in jail. No bail had been set.
My mother, to put it bluntly, freaked out.
Once she calmed down, my parents set to work to address the situation, 500 miles away. When all was said and done, it took a week to get my brother released from jail.
We all know what happened one week later …
Exactly one week later, Dr. King was slain in Memphis.
The next couple of months were a blur. Our relocation to an unknown and slightly scary destination became a reality. Within ninety days, we moved to that steamy city by the river — Memphis.
More than once, my thirteen year old self asked, “What in the world was I getting myself into?” To that I would now say, “Little did I know.”
Little did I know that I would soon become immersed in a Memphis community with which I was totally unfamiliar, but would quickly become home.
Little did I know that politics and protest would lead to a most unusual conclusion to my high school years.
And little did I know the impact of lessons learned outside of the classroom. Those truths have provided a perspective and wisdom that I gratefully share with the next generations, just as elders did for me.
Politics, protests and the poignant passages of my high school years in Memphis are the backdrop of my memoir,
LITTLE DID I KNOW: The Coming of Age of a Black Boomer.
It is available for PRE-ORDER NOW with FREE SHIPPING.
You can read an excerpt at
https://www.alchemymediapublishing.com/little-did-i-know
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“The experiences that serve as the foundation for this book, LITTLE DID I KNOW: The Coming of Age of a Black Boomer, have shaped and informed my world view. However, make no mistake, my story is uniquely American.
Only in America, could issues of politics, social change, race, and culture intersect and define a generation. As baby boomers came of age during this period of protest and change, we took our place in the line of Americans who have sought to make our world a better place, while figuring out our place in it.” ~ dbj
Don is a sales and marketing exec, entrepreneur and author. His ventures have been featured on platforms including CNN and Black Enterprise. He attended Brown University, Georgia State University, and Florida State University College of Law and lives in Atlanta.
