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On April 3, 1968, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., second from proper, stands with different civil rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., a day earlier than he was assassinated at roughly the identical place. From left: Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, King and Ralph Abernathy.
Charles Kelly/AP Photo
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Charles Kelly/AP Photo
On April 3, 1968, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., second from proper, stands with different civil rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., a day earlier than he was assassinated at roughly the identical place. From left: Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, King and Ralph Abernathy.
Charles Kelly/AP Photo
Clara Jean Ester was a university scholar at Memphis State College in Tennessee when she bore witness to a sequence of pivotal moments in civil rights historical past.
As a junior, Ester joined the Memphis Sanitation Strike in 1968, alongside African American sanitation employees who have been calling to demand higher working circumstances and better wages.
A younger Clara Jean Ester graduated from Memphis State College, now often called the University of Memphis. Now, Ester is a retired organizer and Methodist deaconess in Mobile, Ala.
Clara Jean Ester
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Clara Jean Ester
A younger Clara Jean Ester graduated from Memphis State College, now often called the University of Memphis. Now, Ester is a retired organizer and Methodist deaconess in Mobile, Ala.
Clara Jean Ester
She was there at round that very same time that Dr. Martin Luther King gave his ultimate speech. She was additionally there the subsequent day when Dr. King was assassinated.
At StoryCorps in Mobile, Ala., earlier this month, Ester, now 72, remembers the final days of Dr. King’s life.
On the evening of April 3, Ester remembered packing right into a crowded congregation at Bishop Charles Mason Temple in Memphis, the place King delivered a sermon in assist of the putting sanitation employees.
“Finally Dr. King arrives, and he said, ‘When I entered into the city of Memphis, I was told about all of these threats. But none of that matters anymore ’cause I’ve been to the mountaintop,’ ” Ester stated, paraphrasing his well-known speech. “He proceeds in saying, ‘If I don’t get there with you, I want you to know that we as a people will get to the Promised Land.’ “
The stormy climate added to an ominous scene, recalled Ester, who noticed his ultimate phrases as a prophecy of his personal dying.
“In the background of that speech you could hear the thunder and the lightning crashing,” she stated. “It was a powerful moment because he did his own eulogy.”
The following day, Ester and quite a few King supporters, gathered on the Lorraine Motel, the place the civil rights chief was staying.
“Walking across the parking lot, I’m looking up at Dr. King leaning on the balcony, chatting with everybody down below,” stated Ester. “All of a sudden what sounded like a truck backfiring goes off and I can hear people saying, ‘Get down, get down!’ ”
But she did not take her eyes off of King, she stated.
“I’m looking, still, at Dr. King being thrown back and I take off and I run up the steps. And when I get up to where he’s laying, I notice this pool of blood around his head,” she stated.
In that second, kneeling over his physique, Ester stated King’s fateful phrases from the evening earlier than have been echoing in her head: I could not get there with you. I could not get there with you.
After information of King’s assassination, she stated hate “took over.” It stemmed, she stated, from “white America [who] don’t want to see us with freedom, so you take out our leader, our king.”
“Every time I want to believe that Dr. King’s life changed everything — I’ve witnessed George Floyds and so many others that have lost their lives,” Ester stated, referring to the person fatally killed by Minneapolis police final May.
Still, in considering what King’s legacy has meant after many years of violence in opposition to Black individuals, Clara stated, “You think that’s gonna destroy his dream? Y’all are wrong. I think children years and years to come will continue to have his dream.”
Audio produced for Morning Edition by Abe Selby. NPR’s Emma Bowman tailored it for the Web.
StoryCorps is a nationwide nonprofit that offers individuals the prospect to interview buddies and family members about their lives. These conversations are archived on the American Folklife Center on the Library of Congress, permitting members to depart a legacy for future generations. Learn extra, together with the best way to interview somebody in your life, at StoryCorps.org.
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