Assassination of Black Men (Part I), Virjena Whitehead

Excerpt from memoir-in-progress, The Roads.

Memphis, TN April 3, 1968, the day before Dr. King's death. Image of him being served an order barring a march without court approval. (Barney Sellers, The Commercial Appeal, ZUMA Press.)

IN APRIL OF 1968, I LIVED IN LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, with my mother and two brothers. Von had been sent to Vietnam after he left Germany, so Mena returned to Arkansas and found an apartment in the projects. We didn’t know it, but we were there on the first of what would become a new typical holding pattern for us. The U.S. Army may have drafted Von, but he would voluntarily make it his career. As such, we would spend the next ten years moving from pillar to post.

On that Thursday, however, we only knew we were excited because Mena was preparing the house for a party. She was celebrating the safe return of her younger brother Alfie from Vietnam alive and in one piece. At the time, far too many families were not so fortunate.

The party was important because Mena had always dreamed of having a beautiful home with well-dressed and well-behaved children. Her dream also included entertaining groups of well-dressed, well-behaved friends and family members in her home. Even though she had grown up a country girl who couldn’t occupy the same space as her white counterparts, she was inhabiting a place where her dream seemed possible.

That Thursday, my brothers and I were playing with toys on the living room floor in front of the television. Mena was preparing the house for her brother Alfie’s coming home party on the upcoming Saturday. We weren’t allowed to play in the rest of the house. Mena wanted to make sure she could see anything we messed up so she could take care of it before the party. She was busy in the kitchen getting things ready. There were some big bottles of drinks in the living room that we had never seen before.

We asked if we could have some, but she replied, “I better not catch y’all drinkin this. It’s alcohol, and it’s only for adults. Y’all understan me?”

“Yeah,” we said. The last thing we wanted was to get in trouble. Unlike our grandparents, uncles, and aunts, when we got in trouble with Mena, she became an ass-whooping machine real fast! There was no grace period or telling you twice. With her, it was, “Didn’t I tell you so and so?” Whack, whack, whack!!

On this particular evening, a show was on. The TV news broke, and the man said, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has just been shot. Malcolm’s eyes got big, and he put his hand over his mouth.

I asked, “You know him?”

Malcolm looked at me and said, “Yeah, a whole lotta people know him.”

Still trying to make sense, I asked, “Is he our doctor?”

After all, the man was a doctor, and we had gone to see a doctor on more than one occasion.

Malcolm looked at me, shook his head, and said, “No dummy, he’s a famous black leader. You’ll find out about him when you start school.”

Mena had enrolled Malcolm in the local Head Start program, so he was what passed for a scholar among the three of us.

Upon hearing that he was famous, I said, “Well, I’ma tell Mena cuz she prolly know him too.”

Not wanting to let me break the news first, Malcolm ran toward the kitchen, where Mena was cleaning out the refrigerator. I tore out after him even though I didn’t stand a chance. At that early age, Malcolm could already outrun, throw, jump, you name it, BB and me. When we hit the doorway running, Mena looked at us like we had lost our minds because we knew running in the house was forbidden!

Before she could say a word, Malcolm and I started yelling over each other. “Dr. Martin Luther King got shot! They shot him. The TV just said it!”

Mena looked at us and said, “What? Who? What y’all talkin' bout?”

We excitedly spoke over each other as we urgently reported, “ It's on TV right now!”

Mena tossed aside the wet rag she had used to clean the fridge and ran toward the living room. She stopped in front of the TV and began drying her hands on the front of her housedress. BB was still sitting on the floor playing with the first of many sets of toy army men as he watched us run around like lunatics. By the time Mena reached the TV, they were reporting from the scene in Memphis. When the man repeated the news that Dr. King had been shot and killed, Mena’s eyes filled with water, but she wiped them quickly, using the collar of her dress.

After listening for a few minutes, she looked at the front door and said, “Awe Lord, Aunt Emma!

Scared, I said, “What happened to Aunt Emma? Did she get shot, too?”

Seeing tears in my eyes, Mena said, “Naw, Aunt Emma is fine. I just know she gone be real upset. Let me go get her before she find out from the news. Y’all wait here. I’ll be right back.”

Mena had run over to Aunt Emma’s many times and left us alone in the apartment, so we weren’t afraid of being left alone. When she returned, her arm was around a hunched over Aunt Emma. Huge tears were rolling down her cheeks.

Aunt Emma kept saying, “I knew it, I knew it! Didn't I tell ya? Lord have mercy on us all!”

Mena brought her into the house and sat her in a living room chair to calm her down. When she kept crying, Mena gave her water and said she would turn the news off and take her to lie down in one of the bedrooms because she was getting too upset, which wasn’t good for her. Aunt Emma made it clear she didn’t want to lie down and insisted she wanted to keep watching the news. Drinking the cool water, she began to calm down.

Remembering that Cille had solid medical knowledge, Mena mentioned Aunt Emma being hysterical. Cille gave Mena the recipe for a tonic using some of the liquor she already had on hand, along with a few other items. The tonic turned out to be quite effective at calming Aunt Emma down. She was probably as drunk as Cooter Brown, but that didn’t matter. Mena knew that Aunt Emma would have likely carried on all night without intervention because she had seen it coming. 

For weeks leading up to his assassination, Aunt Emma would read articles or see TV News reports about Dr. King and exclaim, “He doing too many dangerous things, they gone kill him! They gone kill him!” 

The news continued reporting on the rioting and looting all over the country. Mena put Aunt Emma in my room to get some sleep and started calling the people she had invited to her party. There didn’t seem to be any signs of trouble in our neighborhood, but she didn’t know if she felt comfortable having a large gathering with everything happening around the country. What if the police mistook her party for some sort of protest gathering?

After speaking with the people she had invited, who were all in favor of having the party as planned, she decided to make one more call and get what she knew would be rock-solid advice. She knew that if having the party was foolish, Cille would let her know in no uncertain terms. It was a toll call, but she was willing to pay the cost because she knew she could rely on Cille to tell her the absolute truth. Instead, Cille encouraged her to move forward with the party. 

She almost pleaded, “Minnie, you got to have this party. After all, Dr. King wouldn’t want folks to stop living just because he gone. Plus, having Alfie make it home alive and in one piece is a huge cause for celebration.” 

She lowered her voice and said, “Minnie, you just don’t know how Daddy fretted about that boy being over there in Vietnam. You gotta celebrate his safe return. Look here, Alfie told me secretly that a lotta his friends didn't make it. Some of ‘em got killed right in front of him. They blood even got on him. He needs this party bad.” 

The conversation with Cille settled it. She would move forward with the party…

… to be continued in Lunar Light Part II, stay tuned!

Virjena Whitehead is a retired Special Education Teacher. During her 20-year teaching career, she specialized in working with emotionally disturbed youth. She is working on a coming-of-age memoir that will be the first in a trilogy to follow her into adulthood because we don’t come of age until we’re well into our 30s or 40s. Virjena lives in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California. Her hobbies include cooking, reading, writing, traveling, eating, learning, and living. She holds a Master of Arts in Education from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California, and a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies from LaSierra University in Riverside, California. She has also studied Architecture and Theology.