One day many years ago when I was coming home from visiting my brother in Maryland, Marie Murdock was standing outside my home.  She escorted me in and gave me a great tour of the home that I live in.  She lived here for nearly half a century.  Now that is a rare occurance.  And last summer lifelong Durham resident George Carter did the same.

George stopped by the house to drop off some papers and asked me if he could show me something inside.  This was actually the fourth time this has happended to me with different people.  We went inside and he took me to the library.  In the back corner he showed me where a large table used to be.  In 1968 within days following the assasination of Dr. King, he, Federal Marshall Murdock, the Mayor and the CO of the National Guard from Fayetteville stood over the table and developed their strategy to  preserve Durham during the riots that followed.  This not only included the central business district, but the innercity neighborhoods that many of us take for granted, today.