[Oe List ...] I'm remembering what happened when MLK died

Thu Apr 5 08:41:03 PDT 2018

Thanks for the memories and descriptions.  I ran across this article from the Boston Review that tries to re-present MLK re:  his social analysis (and theory of racism), his understanding of social change and the role of direct action and civil disobedience, and his sense of the role of ethical virtues in both activism and social life.
MLK Now

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MLK Now

Fifty years after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., canonization has prevented a reckoning with the substanc...
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As for me, I recall:First memory:  College IV was in session over dinner in room D that Thursday night.  Gene Beasley opened the door and announced, "Martin King has been shot".  Next memory:  Friday morning all of us walked together to Leif Ericson Elementary School (teachers and children from the Institute) and school was let out early -- around lunch time.  We came out the door of the school and Charles Lingo was waiting to escort us back to the Institute.  I was living at the Program Center at the time and went back there to get ready for the weekend.  I have vague memories of smoke rising from places along Madison street.Next memory:  Friday evening.  I was assigned as a PO or something to the CS-1 course (The Twentieth Century Cultural Revolution).  We met in room E on the first floor of the Administration building.  It may be that David McCleskey and David Morton were part of the teaching team.  I remember the flickering of reflected flames from Madison and perhaps Fifth Avenue were visible out the windows.  Seemed eerily metaphorical of this "cultural" revolution.  At some point we stopped the course.  I was then assigned to security in the north stairwell of Faculty West (the street side).  By then, of course, I was worried.  I remember going to the kitchen store room and getting a handful of Pecan Sandies cookies (recently inkinded) to have with me just in case.  My next memory was the word being passed that we were to move everyone out of the building, across to the Administration building and then out the door and across the street into Bethany Hospital.  I vaguely recall some sort of a cordon to move through and don't remember if National Guard troops were present or not.  Spent the night, perhaps several nights, in the hallway of the hospital.Next memory.  A gathering, the next morning, in room A, I think all the emerging generation (EG) were in room B or the lounge area outside of room A.  The gathering included Institute staff and course participants.   Joe Mathews was leading some sort of conversation about whether to stay or leave, what the options were.  Suddenly there was a "bang" like a paper bag popping or a board slamming down coming from the lounge.  I turned my head toward the sound and when I looked back Joe was no longer visible.  Turned out it was someone from the EG that made the sound.  Next memory.  We decided to sleep for several nights in the hallways of the administration building, pulling mattresses out of the rooms and sleeping on the floor.
I don't remember eating the Pecan Sandies, but I do remember crumbs in my jacket later on.Jim Wiegel  

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    On Wednesday, April 4, 2018, 11:04:20 AM MST, Zoe Barley via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:  

 Thanks, so much, Herman. 
We had gathered the night of the assassination with neighborhood colleagues and sang We Shall Overcome and Take my Hand, Precious Lord. The next day there were courses to be taught  across the country as well as at 3444.   I was teaching an RSI in Emmetsburg, Iowa, along with three other Order members. Friday night we got a call from the Boston House telling us that Chicago had been burned out. We each had spouses and young children there. The local Iowans did not know who Huntley and Brinkley were when we hoped to get news.  We called the main Chicago desk - and miracle of miracles someone answered.  So we learned a little of what had happened on the campus. We finished the courses and headed home Sunday. We had been warned that no cab would take us into Fifth City. We went to a North Shore colleague's house where others were gathered until we could get into the city. I had been told that our younger daughter, Kristin, was missing - she had not showed up in the hospital. At the house I learned she had been found, having been put in a car and taken out of the city.  
I've written about the whole experience as I'm sure others have also. Can share more if anyone's interested.  Our personal distress was so much less than what the people of Fifth City experienced.
Zoe Barley  

-----Original Message-----
From: Herman Greene via OE 
Sent: Apr 4, 2018 11:38 AM
To: OE Listserv 
Cc: Herman Greene 
Subject: [Oe List ...] I'm remembering what happened when MLK died

Here's a good current article with pictures and sound in the Chicago Tribute.
This article has it right that North Lawndale and East Garfield Park (of which Fifty City, now recognized as a sub-neighborhood of E Garfield Park, is a part) were hardest hit. The Wikipedia article says Austin and Lawndale.

Here's a reflection on the riots.
Here's an article from 1968.
My memory is that I first heard about the death of MLK in RFK's speech but I'm not sure.
The next day, as I remember it, I did my usual commute from the Westside to the University of Chicago on the el, an even more scary commute than usual.
That night all hell broke loose. Joy and I were baby sitting. It was a Friday evening and there was a course being given on black history with many black people from St. Louis. The room we were in was an upper floor with a view to the west. We could see fires being lit one after another getting closer and closer to us. 

We remember the fires that were lit in our building and the hurried instructions for us to leave the building. The people at the black history course perhaps wisely fled.
People in the Order assembled in the basement of the hospital next door.
Late at night we returned to the building and sat in an upper hallway with the lights out.
It was surreal. 
The first story above rightly states that these neighborhoods were never rebuilt and are filled with empty lots. This is not to say there have not been many changes and positive developments as well.
I just looked up North Lawndale in Wikipedia. The average family income there today is $22,000.In East Garfield Park it is $21,000.
Herman

-- 
__________________________________________________Herman F. Greene2516 Winningham RoadChapel Hill, NC 27516919-942-4358 (ph & fax)hfgreenenc at gmail.com

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