Alveda King
Encyclopedia
Alveda Celeste King is an American
Christian
minister, conservative, pro-life
activist, and author. She is a niece of the civil rights
leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
and daughter of the late civil rights
activist Rev. A. D. William King, Sr. and his wife Naomi Barber King. She is the full-time Pastoral Associate of African-American Outreach for the Roman Catholic pro-life
group, Priests for Life
. She once served as a Senior Fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
, a conservative Washington, D.C.
think-tank. She is a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives
and the founder of King for America. She has been married and divorced three times.
, Georgia
. She was the first of five children of A. D. King, the younger brother of Martin Luther King Jr., and Naomi Barber King. She says her mother wanted to abort her so she could continue college but her Grandfather was able to convince her to keep her child. When she was 12, her father became a leader of the Birmingham campaign
while serving as pastor at the First Baptist Church of Ensley in Birmingham, Alabama
. Later that same year, King’s house was bombed by opponents to the civil rights movement. In 1969, Ms. King married.
Grandfather King said in his autobiography, "Alveda had been up the night before, she said, talking with her father and watching a television movie with him. He'd seemed unusually quiet...and not very interested in the film. But he had wanted to stay up and Alveda left him sitting in an easy chair, staring at the TV, when she went off to bed...
I had questions about A.D.'s death and I still have them now. He was a good swimmer. Why did he drown? I don't know -- I don't know that we will ever know what happened."
and got a second abortion. Later, she wanted to get a third abortion, but neither the father nor her grandfather would pay for it.
and sociology
as an undergraduate, and she received a Master of Arts
degree in business management from Central Michigan University
. She received an honorary doctorate from Saint Anselm College
. In Salon.com
, King explained her honorary degree: "I guess for my stand on the support of marriage, and family, and education, and life."
. The district included Fulton County
, and King served as a Democrat
. In 1984, King ran for the seat of Georgia's 5th congressional district
in the United States House of Representatives
and supported the Rev. Jesse Jackson
for president. The 5th Congressional seat, at the time of King's campaign was held by Wyche Fowler
. Andrew Young
, who held the seat prior to Fowler, endorsed Hosea Williams
. Hosea Williams was a courageous civil rights hero perhaps best known for organizing and leading the first Selma March. Coretta Scott King did not endorse her niece. Young, who had given up the seat to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the UN
, and Williams approached King and asked her to end her campaign for the seat so that she could dedicate more time to her family. Young later apologized for what he called "some blatantly chauvinistic remarks." She did not withdraw. With the black vote split, Fowler defeated both King and Williams in the primary. That was the last time she ran for elective office.
speaker and often speaks on college campuses about abortion issues. She joined the pro-life movement, crusading to offer women alternatives to abortion. Angela D. Dillard classifies King as among "prominent black members of the Religious Right". Alveda King is currently a board member of Georgia Right to Life
.
. Before the rally King explained to the Christian Science Monitor that speaking at the rally was a chance to engage in freedom of speech and to praise the man, Lincoln
, that "led this fledgling nation out of slavery, and made my people free." ABC News
reported that in King's speech, she hoped that "white privilege will become human privilege and that America will soon repent of the sin of racism and return itself to honor."
knew that her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was pro-life", regarding Martin Luther King Jr. winning the Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood
in 1966. In 1994, Alveda King wrote a letter condemning Coretta Scott King's support for abortion and gay marriage. According to Fox News, Alveda King has "long argued" that Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican. In contradiction to King's statement, however, University of Cambridge
historian David Garrow
stated in a Salon profile of Alveda King regarding Martin Luther King: "King was not only not a Republican, he was well to the left of the Democratic Party of the 1960s [....] It’s also well-documented that Dr. King was a strong supporter of Planned Parenthood." Also, after the Republicans nominated Barry Goldwater
(who voted against the Civil Rights Act) and Strom Thurmond
became a Republican, Dr. King actively campaigned against Goldwater.
After civil rights leader Rosa Parks
died in 2005, King said Parks was a symbol for the pro-life movement (even though she had served on the Board of Advocates of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America).
protesting proposed state legislation to extend anti-discrimination laws relating to housing and employment to gays and lesbians, King said: "To equate homosexuality with race is to give a death sentence to civil rights. No one is enslaving homosexuals...or making them sit in the back of the bus."
In a 1998 speech at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
: "Homosexuality cannot be elevated to the civil rights issue. The civil rights movement was born from the Bible. God hates homosexuality." King had been making public appearances throughout 1997 criticizing gay rights.
King is also noted for her opposition to same-sex marriage, and came under criticism for her August, 2010 remarks likening gay marriage to "genocide".
She also released a CD called Let Freedom Ring in 2005, and she has appeared in film and television as both Alveda King and Alveda King Beal. The Human Experience
, a 2010 documentary
film, featured commentary from King.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
minister, conservative, pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
activist, and author. She is a niece of the civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
and daughter of the late civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activist Rev. A. D. William King, Sr. and his wife Naomi Barber King. She is the full-time Pastoral Associate of African-American Outreach for the Roman Catholic pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
group, Priests for Life
Priests for Life
Priests for Life is a Roman Catholic pro-life organization based in New York. It functions as a network to promote and coordinate pro-life activism with the primary strategic goal of ending abortion and euthanasia and to spread the Gospel of Life according to the encyclical of the same name...
. She once served as a Senior Fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution is a Washington, D.C.–based conservative think tank that produced reports and policy research....
, a conservative Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
think-tank. She is a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives
Georgia House of Representatives
The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly of the U.S. state of Georgia.-Composition:...
and the founder of King for America. She has been married and divorced three times.
Childhood and family
Alveda King was born in AtlantaAtlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. She was the first of five children of A. D. King, the younger brother of Martin Luther King Jr., and Naomi Barber King. She says her mother wanted to abort her so she could continue college but her Grandfather was able to convince her to keep her child. When she was 12, her father became a leader of the Birmingham campaign
Birmingham campaign
The Birmingham campaign was a strategic movement organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to bring attention to the unequal treatment that black Americans endured in Birmingham, Alabama...
while serving as pastor at the First Baptist Church of Ensley in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
. Later that same year, King’s house was bombed by opponents to the civil rights movement. In 1969, Ms. King married.
Father's death
Only a week later, her father, A.D. King, was found dead in the pool at his home after a long bout with alcoholism and depression. The cause of death was listed as an accidental drowning.Grandfather King said in his autobiography, "Alveda had been up the night before, she said, talking with her father and watching a television movie with him. He'd seemed unusually quiet...and not very interested in the film. But he had wanted to stay up and Alveda left him sitting in an easy chair, staring at the TV, when she went off to bed...
I had questions about A.D.'s death and I still have them now. He was a good swimmer. Why did he drown? I don't know -- I don't know that we will ever know what happened."
Abortions
She had two abortions and attempted to get a third one. When she became pregnant, she says her doctor, without the family's knowledge, gave her an abortion. She was divorced soon after that. When she was pregnant in 1973, she went to Planned ParenthoodPlanned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
and got a second abortion. Later, she wanted to get a third abortion, but neither the father nor her grandfather would pay for it.
Education
King studied journalismJournalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
and sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
as an undergraduate, and she received a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degree in business management from Central Michigan University
Central Michigan University
Central Michigan University is a public research university located in Mount Pleasant in the U.S. state of Michigan...
. She received an honorary doctorate from Saint Anselm College
Saint Anselm College
Saint Anselm College is a nationally ranked, private, Benedictine, Catholic liberal arts college in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Founded in 1889 by Abbot Hilary Pfrängle, O.S.B. of Saint Mary's Abbey in Newark, New Jersey, at the request of Bishop Denis M. Bradley of Manchester, New Hampshire, the...
. In Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, King explained her honorary degree: "I guess for my stand on the support of marriage, and family, and education, and life."
Public office
From 1979 to 1981, King represented the 28th District in the Georgia House of RepresentativesGeorgia House of Representatives
The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly of the U.S. state of Georgia.-Composition:...
. The district included Fulton County
Fulton County, Georgia
Fulton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its county seat is Atlanta, the state capital since 1868 and the principal county of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
, and King served as a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. In 1984, King ran for the seat of Georgia's 5th congressional district
Georgia's 5th congressional district
Georgia's 5th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Georgia. Based in central Fulton and parts of Dekalb and Clayton counties, the heavily African American district includes the state capital and largest city of Atlanta as well as many of the surrounding suburbs...
in the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
and supported the Rev. Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
for president. The 5th Congressional seat, at the time of King's campaign was held by Wyche Fowler
Wyche Fowler
William Wyche Fowler, Jr. is an American politician and ambassador. He is a member of the Democratic Party and served as U.S. Senator from Georgia from January 1987 to January 1993. He had previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 until his senatorial election.-Early life...
. Andrew Young
Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young is an American politician, diplomat, activist and pastor from Georgia. He has served as Mayor of Atlanta, a Congressman from the 5th district, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations...
, who held the seat prior to Fowler, endorsed Hosea Williams
Hosea Williams
Hosea Lorenzo Williams was a United States civil rights leader, ordained minister, businessman, philanthropist, scientist and politician...
. Hosea Williams was a courageous civil rights hero perhaps best known for organizing and leading the first Selma March. Coretta Scott King did not endorse her niece. Young, who had given up the seat to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the UN
United States Ambassador to the United Nations
The United States Ambassador to the United Nations is the leader of the U.S. delegation, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The position is more formally known as the "Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations, with the rank and status of Ambassador...
, and Williams approached King and asked her to end her campaign for the seat so that she could dedicate more time to her family. Young later apologized for what he called "some blatantly chauvinistic remarks." She did not withdraw. With the black vote split, Fowler defeated both King and Williams in the primary. That was the last time she ran for elective office.
Pro-life activism
King is a pro-lifePro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
speaker and often speaks on college campuses about abortion issues. She joined the pro-life movement, crusading to offer women alternatives to abortion. Angela D. Dillard classifies King as among "prominent black members of the Religious Right". Alveda King is currently a board member of Georgia Right to Life
Georgia Right to Life
Georgia Right to Life is a pro-life advocacy organization that is non-profit, non-partisan, and non-sectarian. It was incorporated in 1971 by Jay and Cheryl Bowman. In 1973, it became the state affiliate of the Washington, D.C. based National Right to Life Committee in response to the Supreme...
.
Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally
On August 28, 2010, King spoke at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln MemorialLincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior...
. Before the rally King explained to the Christian Science Monitor that speaking at the rally was a chance to engage in freedom of speech and to praise the man, Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, that "led this fledgling nation out of slavery, and made my people free." ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
reported that in King's speech, she hoped that "white privilege will become human privilege and that America will soon repent of the sin of racism and return itself to honor."
Abortion
Alveda King says "Mrs. Coretta Scott KingCoretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.Mrs...
knew that her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was pro-life", regarding Martin Luther King Jr. winning the Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
in 1966. In 1994, Alveda King wrote a letter condemning Coretta Scott King's support for abortion and gay marriage. According to Fox News, Alveda King has "long argued" that Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican. In contradiction to King's statement, however, University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
historian David Garrow
David Garrow
David J. Garrow is an American historian and author of the book Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. He is also the author of Liberty and Sexuality, a history of the legal struggles over...
stated in a Salon profile of Alveda King regarding Martin Luther King: "King was not only not a Republican, he was well to the left of the Democratic Party of the 1960s [....] It’s also well-documented that Dr. King was a strong supporter of Planned Parenthood." Also, after the Republicans nominated Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
(who voted against the Civil Rights Act) and Strom Thurmond
Strom Thurmond
James Strom Thurmond was an American politician who served as a United States Senator. He also ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes...
became a Republican, Dr. King actively campaigned against Goldwater.
After civil rights leader Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
died in 2005, King said Parks was a symbol for the pro-life movement (even though she had served on the Board of Advocates of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America).
Gay rights
King has spoken out against gay rights. At a 1997 rally in SacramentoSacramento
Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...
protesting proposed state legislation to extend anti-discrimination laws relating to housing and employment to gays and lesbians, King said: "To equate homosexuality with race is to give a death sentence to civil rights. No one is enslaving homosexuals...or making them sit in the back of the bus."
In a 1998 speech at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
: "Homosexuality cannot be elevated to the civil rights issue. The civil rights movement was born from the Bible. God hates homosexuality." King had been making public appearances throughout 1997 criticizing gay rights.
King is also noted for her opposition to same-sex marriage, and came under criticism for her August, 2010 remarks likening gay marriage to "genocide".
Works
King has written the following books:- For generations to come: Poetry by Alveda King Beal (as Alveda King Beal) (1986)
- The Arab Heart (as Alveda King Beal) (1986)
- Sons of Thunder: The King Family Legacy (2003)
- I Don't Want Your Man, I Want My Own (2001)
- Who We Are In Christ Jesus (2008)
- How Can the Dream Survive If We Murder the Children?: ABORTION IS NOT A CIVIL RIGHT! (2008)
She also released a CD called Let Freedom Ring in 2005, and she has appeared in film and television as both Alveda King and Alveda King Beal. The Human Experience
The Human Experience
The Human Experience is a documentary film, produced by Grassroots Films, which tells the story of and his travels, as he searches for answers to the question: what does it mean to be human? The film is divided into the three experiences, which take Jeffrey and his friends to New York, to Peru,...
, a 2010 documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
film, featured commentary from King.