Tyrone Brooks had never driven so fast in his young life.
But there he was in the early morning hours of April 5, 1968, racing toward Memphis in a brand-new white Thunderbird.
The 22-year-old was determined to reach the city where Martin Luther King Jr. had just been murdered hours earlier on April 4.
The Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, who suddenly became the new president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, had summoned all members to Memphis to quickly strategize the next steps for the organization.
When Brooks arrived at 2 a.m., Memphis was burning.
Abernathy told the distraught Brooks: “If we loved Martin, we will be committed to fulfilling his dream.”
In this 2008 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Brooks sat down to talk about the last days of King and the immediate impact of his death.
Part of a project marking the then 40th anniversary of King’s death, Brooks was one of 13 people that The AJC sat down with to record their stories and shed light on the life and death of the civil rights leader.
We are re-releasing these interviews as a 13-part podcast hosted by Multimedia Journalist Ryon Horne.
Along with Brooks, Earl Caldwell, Andrew Young, Christine King Farris, Martin Luther King III, Xernona Clayton and Bernice King, and those who have left us — including Kyle, Juanita Abernathy, Ralph David Abernathy III, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, Congressman John Lewis, Kathryn Johnson — each gives us a glimpse, through their relationships with King, inside the making of history.
Each episode will be made available through the Unapologetically ATL newsletter, but you can also subscribe to “The Voices of King” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode.
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