My mother was a reading/teaching specialist and had moved to teach elementary reading in Fairfax county, in the fall of 1967.
On April 4, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated here at the Lorraine Motel, just a day after delivering his prophetic “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech at the Mason Temple Church of God in Christ!”
She and my Dad ended up in our home on the western edge of Fairfax county, due the wide spread riots in the DC area.
For about a week plus, my mother and retired Dad stayed and watched the riots and fires on tv in our home.
She resigned, and they moved back to the SW, where she taught and tutored reading for 2+ decades.
Her program was cancelled in Fairfax cty as being racists as she actually tested students to determine their actual reading levels.
She predicted the downfall of public education in America based on what she saw in 1968 and later across America.
Back then, in 1970, one in 100 Virginia residents were born in a foreign country. Now it’s one in 10, and they aren’t all Mexicans. They come from all over the world. Ukrainians, Chinese, Middle Easterners, Africans, Europeans etc. All getting their mouth firmly clamped on the US government nipple.
I can NEVER be thankful ENOUGH that I went to a one room school.