Yolanda King, daughter of MLK, dies at 51

Yolanda King was two years younger than my mother. Born in the South, in the same state, in cities only an hour a part, their lives never crossed, but the worlds they came into were similar. They both came to know the segregated South, both were born into the Black middle class. Before she was two years old, the house she lived in had been bombed twice and her father had been chosen to head the struggle for civil and human rights for Afro-Americans in the United States. Yolanda King was born into the heart of struggle, and that factor would shape her entire life and that of her entire family. Activism is not a trait generally found in the Black middle class. While most blacks, prior to the onslaught of integration held firmly to their Christian beliefs and believed in doing the lord’s bidding, along with that went a firm belief  that one should keep one’s mouth shut, especially in front of white people. And one should especially not cause trouble. When Alice Walker and other black students, and especially female students left the confines of their southern Black colleges and walked into the surrounding communities of Atlanta, Montgomery, Memphis, and other southern cities to protest segregation, they did so with the scorn and retribution of their elders. That Martin Luther King Jr became one of the key figures in the Black struggle for civil and human rights
is incredible and speaks to the incredible integrity, dignity, and moral courage that he possessed. It is a blessing to all of us that his passion for justice and his love of humanity was shared by Coretta Scott King and that this legacy was passed on to their children. It seems a terrible injustice, a great
ignorance of god’s plan that Yolanda King’s life is over, and especially at the young age of 51. Ms. King’s commitment to social justice led her to conspire with Attallah Shabazz, oldest daughter of Malcolm X, to found a theatre company called Nucleus, dedicated to civil rights and the betterment of humanity.  King also portrayed Rosa Parks in a 1978 miniseries entitled “King” and sat on the
board of the King Foundation.  Yolanda King remained true to the values of her parents and to the cause of social justice throughout her life. Her death is an incredible loss that leaves us all just a bit raw, especially following so close after the death of Coretta Scott King. The death of Yolanda King  beckons us all to pick up the banner and continue towards achieving the dreams that her
father, and that Yolanda King herself, dared to dream.