"My father and mother and the older people used to always tell us about Dr. King when we were children. They told us what he stood for, you know – about peace and non-violence, and just everybody, every human and every race coming together and being as one. I remember when Dr. King was assassinated. I was about ten-years-old and living on Capitol Hill. His assassination touched a lot of people and that's why his death hurt a lot of people real bad. There was a Safeway behind my house and people started breaking the windows and rioting and, you know, looting. So, I took my little red wagon, went and sat at the Safeway and loaded it up and went back to my house. When my father got home, he made me take it all back and put it right back in the store!
"After Dr. King’s assassination, I remember H Street Northeast. Man, talk about smoke and glass and people, oh man - it was something that you really didn’t want to see, but it was real. To me, he brought a lot of people together – whites, blacks, and Hispanics. And he eliminated a lot of hatred, you know. That’s the legacy that I got from him. From what I believe, in order to achieve something sometimes you’ve got to give something, you know, and he had to give his life.
"In my life, I’ve seen a lot of the city change. A lot of the city being torn down and remodeled and a lot of people moving in and out of here. I’ve been here for 52 years of my life. It’s a nice city – I love it! I was born and raised here, so I got to love it, you know."
1 comment:
we celebrate few men with federal holidays.
theres a reason MLK is one of them.
amen.
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