MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — As National Guard troops arrive in Memphis, the memory of thousands of them with bayonet rifles and tanks in 1968 is still fresh for Joe Calhoun. Back then, he marched through the streets with sanitation workers and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
King had come to support about 1,300 mostly black sanitation workers who were striking to protest inhumane treatment after a broken garbage truck killed two workers. King led a demonstration in overdue March that turned violent when police and protesters clashed and an officer fatally shot a 16-year-old. In response, the National Guard quickly lined the streets.
“You felt very uncomfortable just going about your daily routine, especially at night,” Calhoun said. “They stopped cars and picked people out at random.”
Al Lewis, then 14, still remembers a week later when Walter Cronkite said on television that King had been shot in his town. Almost immediately, gunfire erupted in a cacophony that Lewis said he had never heard at such a volume except on New Year’s Day. The National Guard quickly returned, and he saw military vehicles and troops downtown during the day and security guards patrolling the neighborhood at night.
President Donald Trump announced last month that the National Guard would be deployed to Memphis along with authorities from numerous federal agencies to fight crime. Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who supports the effort, said the troops would be represented by the U.S. Marshals Service to play “a critical support role” for local law enforcement. According to the city, the security guards will not have tanks.
At least nine armed guards in combat fatigues patrolled Friday near the pyramid, a Memphis landmark, and at a visitor center along the Mississippi River. The troops wore body armor marked “Military Police” and had weapons in holsters.
While state and federal authorities are increasingly perceptible, troops are not yet perceptible in gigantic numbers. It was unclear how many security guards were at the scene or expected to arrive later.
Memphis has experienced high levels of violent crime for years, including assaults, car thefts and murders. While this year’s statistics show improvements in several categories, including homicides, many acknowledge that violence remains a problem.
The city is a majority-black epicenter for civil rights, where residents like Calhoun and Lewis remember how the Guard responded in more than one time of unrest. A decade after King’s assassination, troops were in Memphis during a fire and police raid as parts of the city were set ablaze.
Calhoun, 75, remains an activist and recently demonstrated against the current deployment. He had hoped he would never see the National Guard in his city again.
“I have four grandchildren and my main goal is to help create a better world for them so they don’t have to go through the same thing. But it took a lot longer than I thought,” he said.
Memphis is at a “pivotal moment,” the governor says
Lee has previously said he doesn’t expect many more than 150 troops in Memphis, although he has since said there is no estimate.
“You’ve talked about the National Guard being in Memphis at pivotal moments. I think this is a pivotal moment for this city,” Lee said in response to a reporter’s question. “They were plagued by violence.”
Memphis was among several locations in the South where the National Guard was stationed during the Civil Rights Movement, including Little Rock, Arkansas; Oxford, Mississippi; and locations in Alabama.
A “show of strength” in 1968
Looking back to 1968, Calhoun remembered staying at the Clayborn Temple and making the now-famous “I AM A MAN” signs for sanitation workers. And he remembers officers throwing tear gas into the church.
Associated Press reports document the military presence that followed, including this description from March 30, 1968: “Heavily armed police and 4,000 National Guardsmen sent in to maintain order patrolled the area around historic Beale Street. Boarded-up storefronts and broken glass bore witness to Thursday’s violence.”
As protesters emerged from Clayborn Temple for another mass march, AP documented how “the National Guard roared past in a show of strength that included four armored personnel carriers with mounted .30-caliber machine guns, six Jeeps and several trucks filled with personnel.”
King blamed a “small group of young militants” for the violence surrounding the marches.
“I would not have come if I had known the violence was possible,” King said in an AP account. “I would have stopped the march.”
Calhoun said the soldiers, some armed, others in armored vehicles, presented “a very imposing sight for little children to see on their way to school, on their way to church, whatever. So we don’t want to see that at all.”
Additionally, he said security guards at checkpoints targeted people participating in the 1968 marches downtown.
Troops return after King’s assassination
A week after the violence, King was back in Memphis, where he vowed to lead a second, peaceful march despite a federal court order to do so. But on April 4, he was killed by a sniper as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.
The attack sparked unrest in Memphis and other US cities.
According to AP reports, around 4,000 National Guard troops were reactivated in Memphis and a curfew was reimposed.
Lewis, now 71, saw Guard vehicles and armed guards on foot downtown, but he never saw them fire their weapons or come to blows with anyone. He saw some juvenile men throw Molotov cocktails into a furniture store and set it on fire.
“I didn’t know what was going on. It was like some kind of invasion,” Lewis said. “I felt fear and excitement, if you can understand both happening at the same time. I didn’t know what was going to happen and how far it would go.”
Once used to put out fires, today’s station could “beautify” Memphis.
In 1978, Lewis was working for the U.S. Postal Service when the local police and fire departments went on strike. Because of his job, he was allowed to drive home from work and pass through the guard checkpoints in the early morning darkness, despite the curfew. He remembers security guards putting out fires.
“Police and fire departments went on strike, a lot of fires were set and there was looting,” Lewis said. “Still, I didn’t feel the same threat that I did when King was killed.”
Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, listed some roles he thinks the Guard could aid with now. This includes monitoring police cameras, “beautifying” neighborhoods or helping the homeless.
Young referred to the operation after King’s assassination and said he understood the public’s fears about the impending action.
“We don’t want to evoke the same images here,” Young said.
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Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press corporate archivist Sarit Hand in New York contributed.
