"If they (police) saw you were still alive, they would come up and hit you with the gun or shoot. They wanted to kill everyone," he told me for a newspaper article I wrote for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "It made me feel very, very small."

When white South African police slaughtered 69 black peaceful protesters in the town of Sharpeville, March 21, 1960, the brutality of the apartheid system was exposed for the world to see.

The 50th anniversary of the massacre was recalled with peaceful ceremonies and wreath-laying at the graves of victims.

But for others, the Sharpeville massacre anniversary presents an opportunity to reflect on what has and has not been achieved for black South Africans, since white rule ended 16 short years ago.

I wonder what Jill would say about how his nation has performed since freedom day in 1994.

Would be he angry that much of the new wealth in black South Africa seems to cling to the upper crust and officials of the ruling African National Congress?

Perhaps he would express more patience and understanding that it will take time for benefits to trickle down to the poorest South Africans.

At the time I met the people of Sharpeville, however, no one could have imagined a post-apartheid South Africa. The wounds of the massacre were still too fresh.

Jill and others I interviewed recalled how 2,000 blacks, peacefully protesting the pass laws that required blacks to carry documents to travel within the country, were walking the street when officers in armored police vehicles, called "saracens," began firing.

A police investigation found that no official order to fire had been given. The most damning finding was that virtually all of the dead were shot in the back.

Nowhere in South Africa was the opportunity to vote in the country's first all-race elections savored more than in Sharpeville. Absolutely everyone older than 40, construction workers, nurses, street vendors, everyone, shared their vivid memories of the killing and the friends and family they lost.

It's difficult to grasp the pivotal role the massacre played in the eventual dismantling of white minority rule in South Africa 34 years later.

When the images of workers removing bodies from the streets was broadcast worldwide, international efforts to isolate the country with economic sanctions began in earnest.

And, thankfully, apartheid began to crumble.