ON April 4th, 1968 I was 5 1/2. The only reason I remember this day is because I walked into our living room and Nana was seating on the arm of a chair crying. This is the first and maybe the only time I saw our mother cry.
I said, ” mommy why are you crying”? and she said,
“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died.”
I thought to myself who was Dr. Martin Luther Kung Jr. I wished I could have done something about it. I wished I could have made mommy feel better. I knew that this was not the time to try to investigate by questioning our mother. Her grief was so profound I had never seen anything like it. She was listening to the radio.
Today as the world commemorates his life and great purpose. I would like to say, ” I miss my mother”
Dr. Hyman's African American Culture Review 