Three days later, on Monday, Memphis sanitation workers began a strike for better wages and better working conditions. That strike divided Memphis. That strike led to visits by Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior. One of those visits ended in his assassination. You just don't break the unwritten code.
Dr. King's visits, his presence, his murder changed many things in many ways. It changed my outlook on my career in journalism. It changed my way of thinking about my hometown, my family, my friends, my community. But, as it turns out, it also changed my view on history.
When Dr. King started coming to Memphis in support of the sanitation workers he would participate in what had become almost weekly marches on city hall. The first march he made turned into a riot. I was driving the station wagon rented by the NBC film crew. We were at the head of the march, escorted by two young men designated as parade marshals. As we neared Main Street on Beale Street the march came to an abrupt halt. Police had closed off the route at the turn onto Main Street. At that moment about a dozen young black men ran from a nearby alley between Main and Second Streets. They began breaking windows on shops along Beale. Police poured in and an all-out battle began. The NBC film crew got very busy very quickly. I remained inside the car.
Suddenly 3 of the young men surrounded my station wagon. Two jumped on the roof and began jumping up and down. The third opened a door and got inside with me. I yelled for him to get out. He said he wanted a cigarette and pointed to several packs on the dash board. I said I'd give him one if he'd get out of the car. He did and I handed him 2 cigarettes through a tiny opening in my driver's side window. I then locked all 4 doors and waited for the NBC crew. In about 5 minutes they all rushed back to the car. The 2 parade marshals had never left the front of the car. They escorted us through the police lines and to safety a block away.
Dr. King and his aides were rushed away to an unknown site. Bedlam ruled for many blocks in all directions. I drove the NBC crew back to the television station so they could get their film processed and edit their story for the evening news. When I went upstairs to the newsroom to begin my work shift editing news film and producing the 10 PM newscast it was discovered I was the only station staff member actually in the middle of the huge downtown event. I was ordered to begin writing "THE STORY' for the 6 O’clock News.
I banged out the story on a typewriter and handed it to the news director. He instructed others to edit film to go with it. Then the entire story was rushed to the studio and presented on the newscast. NBC's story had been on the Huntley-Brinkley Report a half-hour earlier.
The newsroom was a mess. Our entire small local staff was there. 5 or 6 NBC people were there. It was a tiny room. Somehow the entire local news staff began working on the 10 PM newscast. I was assigned to edit film for the evening.
In those days the film that was actually used on the newscasts was called the "Ins" and was kept. What wasn't used, the "Outs" was thrown away. There just wasn't enough storage room for all of the Outs. But I thought the sanitation workers strike was more important than any other news of the time so I had been saving the outs since January 2nd. Each day I'd put the outs on a film spool, label it with the date, and toss it in a cardboard box under my edit station. When that box filled I got another one, and another one.
When the 10 PM newscast that fateful night finished I was assigned to work on more stories, this time for NBC's Today Show. About 2 AM my foot struck one of those boxes of "ins" under my edit station. Suddenly I realized what I had and yelled to the news staff: "Look what I've got!!!"
From then on we kept everything we could on the on-going story. Dr. King continued his visits. The strike dragged on. The "outs" built up as did the "ins."
On the afternoon of April 4th one of our local news staff members remarked he had just gotten a phone call from "a nut" who said he was in town to kill Dr. King. When he said that I lunged for a phone and called police. I was told one other television station and the newspapers had received similar calls. It wasn't many hours later that we heard Dr. King had been shot. To this day we believe that phone call was from James Earl Ray.
History was made that day: bad history, but history none the less. And most of the documentaries you see about those days in Memphis, most of the history television pieces you see use those ins and those outs. They are kept in a special collection with material from NBC News and other sources for historians, producers and others to view and to use. And much of that material was kept on a hunch that "this just might be something important."
I've heard bits and pieces of that story many times over the years. Reading it now makes the hair on the back of my neck stand at attention. It has the makings of another chapter. Perhaps "the code"?
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