I was 11 years old turning 12 in August 1968 I was sitting in a soda shop in Baltimore having a cheeseburger and a cherry coke, the lady who was serving me was name Miss Mary she was a beautiful older Black Woman who everyone in the community loved and respected.  As I was sitting down waiting for my cheeseburger a gentleman  ran into the Reads Drugstore and said "They done killed the King The King is Dead" in the beginning I didnot get what he was meaning, and I saw Miss Mary starting to cry and not just tears but the crying that only a older lady could do the type that a Grandchild of a slave gave, it almost had a musical sound to it and for the next 40 years I can hear it as clear and as sad as it was.  I went out into the street and I saw men and woman grown people stopping what was going on in there lives and crying, I had seen king 5 years eary maybe 6 as he stopped in Baltimore to campaign for Kennedy but this was a death that took the sould out of the air you cound not hear cars or the sounds of the city it was as if the air stopped and the walling began, if a few days not long it burned the city burned. And I saw the National Guard come into our community and I saw people places signs on there stores saying SOUL BROTHERS, I remember 2 police offices came on the basketball court and kicked the ball into the woods and told us  "Go Pray for your damm KING" I will never forget his eyes and the spit that came out of his mouth when he said it ... My father who could have passed for white put a sign on his car as he went to work and my mother who was a nurse had permission to work, but as the cufew came the calm came, what 4 days did was change my life and today I work to better my community, today I am strong and today I do things to make my world better