My Back Pages

My Back Pages: April 4, 1968 : On this day in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a man not worthy of having his name mentioned. His murder was the dire...

On this day in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a man not worthy of having his name mentioned. His murder was the direct result of the hatred and discrimination against a people simply because of the color of their skin. Dr. King worked long and hard to right the wrongs of a long established institutionalized segregation. They called it 'Separate but Equal,' but it was far from that. I remember traveling through the segregated states as a young child. I rode a bus from my home in New Rochelle, New York to my Grandparent's home in Hominy, Oklahoma. I remember stopping along the way at bus stations to eat, and not knowing, heading over to a food service stand. I was politely told, by the black gentleman that I was at the wrong counter. He pointed to the sign that read 'Colored Only', and directed me to the 'White Only' counter. This was my first encounter with segregated America. As a young boy, I was blissfully unaware of the forced sepa