MLK - Forty years later

Forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in Memphis, Tennessee.  I was 18 years old at the time so I remember the event very well.  I also remember that the community was terrified that race riots would erupt nation-wide and our white race would have to continually look over our shoulders.  Race riots did in fact occur in some cities but other cities remained calm but wary.  I lived in Kansas City at the time and I recall that the only real measure taken by the local government was to restrict the sale of gasoline.  Gasoline could only be dispensed into cars and not in any portable containers for fear that it might be converted into Molotov cocktails.  Thankfully, Kansas City was spared any major conflicts and life continued on basically as usual.

There were many factions within the Civil Rights movement then so that when Martin Luther King was assassinated, it didn’t feel that the course of events would change drastically and civil rights would eventually be the law of the land in the near future.  It was a tragic event but the world wouldn’t stop spinning.  It soon became apparent that Dr. King had been a stabilizing factor and the non-violent aspect of the movement would take a back seat.  Peace marches grew more hostile and the groupies of MLK would fight to become his heir apparent.  We young white kids who had been supporters of the Civil Rights movement soon became disenchanted and some of us just threw up our hands and backed away.  It had become harder and harder to justify the actions of groups like the Black Panthers, Malcolm X and others.

Now today, forty years later, I often wonder how things would be if Martin Luther King had lived his life fully and not been killed so many years ago.  Would people treat each other equally and not feel that the other races were out to get them?  Would the paranoia still exist on such a grand scale?  Would the young black people automatically see us older white people as redneck, KKK card-carrying bigots?  Would employment applications and government documents still ask your race but demand that you overlook race in the everyday workplace?  Would some areas of our community find it necessary to install iron bars on the doors and windows of its homes in order to feel a little security?  I sure wish we could have found out.