She portrayed Rosa Parks, who sparked the civil rights movement by refusing to give up her bus seat in a miniseries, King (1978), and Betty Shabazz, the wife of Malcolm X, in Death of a Prophet (1981). She complimented her mother on her achievements and her mother spoke of her in a positive light, as well. "[128] January 2008's issue of Ebony, her relationship with Rev. The four children of the civil rights activist noticed "something was happening". At her father's former Atlanta church, Ebenezer Baptist, she performed a series of one-actor skits that told stories including a girl's first ride on a desegregated bus and a college student's recollection of the 1963 desegregation of Birmingham, Alabama. I am in direct contact with her spirit, and that has given me so much peace and so much strength. Houston is in for dust and gray skies as Texas haboob arrives, Oops! Many former classmates of both Grady High School and Smith College attended to remember her. "Daughters of M.L. hide caption. [34] King and her siblings were assured an education thanks to the help of Harry Belafonte, who set up a trust fund for them years prior to their father's death. In 1966, Yolanda listened to a speech her father gave when he was addressing a rally. "Volunteers and staff of the American Heart Association will hold the Power of Legacy dinner on Saturday evening, which will pay special tribute to King and her legacy.''. "[91] In an interview with People magazine in 1999, she recalled when she first learned of her father's death and stated in her words that "to this day, my heart skips a beat every time I hear one of those special bulletins. [24] She began speaking publicly at the age of ten and even filled in for her parents on occasion. On her company's Web site, she described her mission as encouraging personal growth and positive social change. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. On January 15, 1997, she spoke at Florida Memorial College and expressed what she believed her father would feel if "he knew that people were taking a day off in his memory to do nothing". Yolanda King was born November 17, 1955, shortly before the Montgomery Bus Boycott. When asked by a young boy what she remembered most about her father, she admitted that her father was not able to spend much time with her and the rest of her family. (That moment would be captured for posterity by Moneta Sleet Jr., who photographed the funeral for Ebony and Jet; he would later be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for the mother-daughter portrait of grief.) She was 51 King. I don't have to try and prove anything to anyone anymore. She was one of the first black children at a previously segregated elementary school in Atlanta, where she endured racial epithets. Yolanda Renee King declares a call to action to mark Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday: "Although you may not be old enough to vote, you are the future." Yolanda Renee King, granddaughter of civil . Numerous dignitaries from around the world crowded into the dark wood pews at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church. During the play, she changed costume numerous times and adjusted her voice and body language when changing roles. The statement was made while she was in the presence of 800 people who gathered to honor her father at the Everett Theatre. She founded a dramatic group with Atallah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, the slain civil rights leader, and started a theatrical production company, Higher Ground Productions, dedicated to what she called personal empowerment. She was credited with having her father's sense of humor.[1]. Martin Luther King Jr.'s eldest child who pursued her father's dream of racial harmony through drama and motivational speaking, has died. They look at me when I'm talking as if this is science fiction. Pennsylvania police seized gloves, flashlight from home of Idaho murders suspect King served as a spokesperson for her mother during the illness that would eventually lead to her death. She was involved in a sibling feud that pitted her and her brother Dexter against their brother Martin Luther King III and sister Bernice King for the sale of the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. [7] King's father eventually was satisfied with the nickname "Yoki", and wished that if they had a second daughter, they would name her something simpler. ATLANTA Yolanda Denise King, the Rev. 225 Yolanda King, the oldest child of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., died on May 15, 2007, in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 51. #inline-recirc-item--id-93e66a4a-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d ~ .item:nth-child(5) { King and her brother Martin III bragged about their selflessness at school. Prior to the film's release, King expressed belief in children of the time knowing that "Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, but when it is time to talk about the facts and the history, there is not a lot of knowledge. Yolanda King would have been 51 years old at the time of death or 59 years old today. Lawmakers and activists including Andrea Waters King , Yolanda Renee King, the granddaughter of Rev. (After all, she was a theater major.) King; two brothers, Martin Luther King III and Dexter Scott King; and an extended family. "[72] Ms. King was 12 on April 4, 1968, when she heard a news bulletin on television saying her father had been assassinated in Memphis. Former Mayor Andrew Young, a lieutenant of her father's who has remained close to the family, said Yolanda King had just spoken at an event for the American Heart Association. In high school, she was president of her sophomore and junior classes and vice president of her senior class. I watched as the four King children grew into adulthood, then middle age, all single. "We must keep reaching across the table and, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, feed each other," King said. display: none; [129] On May 25, 2008, her brother Martin Luther III and his wife, Arndrea, became the parents of a baby girl and named her Yolanda Renee King, after King herself. Sometime after Martin Luther King's assassination, King told her mother "Mom, I'm not going to cry because my dad is not dead. She held membership at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which her father helped found in 1957, and she was a notable advocate for non-violence. This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial. I got my answer less than a decade later when, one ridiculously snowy evening in Washington, D.C., my doorbell rang. [110], She preached in January 2007 to an audience in Ebenezer Baptist Church urging them to be an oasis for peace and love, as well as to use her father's holiday as starting ground for their own interpretations of prejudice. She played Rosa Parks in the 1978 miniseries "King" and appeared in "Ghosts of Mississippi" a drama based on the true story of a white supremacist accused of the assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers (via NPR). After she suggested that he would most likely give it all away, King laughed with her mother. Yolanda Denise King was an African-American activist, actress and first-born child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., said Steve Klein, a spokesman for the King Center. Joseph Lowery, one of her father's close aides in the civil rights movement. Summary . ", The Rev. Yolanda has mostly been portrayed in films that revolve around her parents. Share Memory. Martin Luther King Jr. , Rev. Her teenage years were filled with more tragedies, specifically the sudden death of her uncle Alfred Daniel Williams King and the murder of her grandmother, Alberta Williams King. After her hour-long presentation, she joined her sister and her aunt, Christine King Farris, in signing books. [102] During the fall of 2004 she played Mama in "A Raisin in the Sun" at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts at Cornell University. None of them have children, and there will be no third generation of Kings to carry on Martin Luther King's legacy. But the circumstances surrounding her death make people draw conclusions about her cause of death. Yolanda died due to a chronic heart condition in 2007. It's often hard for young people to understand the fear and terror so many people felt and how bold they were to get involved in the marches. King's mother, Coretta Scott King, suffered a stroke before her death from cancer in 2006. That decade saw King's acting career take off as she appeared in ten separate projects, including Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), Our Friend, Martin (1999) and Selma, Lord, Selma (1999). Klein said the family did not know the cause of death but that relatives think it might have been a heart problem. Search instead in Creative? Father's death: 1968 Teenage years and high school: 1968-1972 Early adulthood College: 1972-1976 . She was an actress and writer, known for King (1978), JAG (1995) and Death of a Prophet (1981). FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2006, file photo, from left, the children of the Rev. [63][64] The theater company was based in New York City and Los Angeles and focused on addressing the issues that their fathers, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, spoke of in their lifetimes. Coretta Scott King began to decline in health after suffering a stroke in August 2005. The event was planned by survivors of the . Davis said Houston heart association officials have received no specific information on the cause of King's death but added that King had a family history of heart disease and stroke. May 16, 2007 / 5:32 AM I was just someone who loved someone, and I knew he had done great things and now people didn't appreciate it." Soon after, she heard of the event when a news bulletin popped up while she was washing dishes. Martin Luther King Jr.'s eldest child who pursued her father's dream of racial harmony through drama and motivational speaking, collapsed and died after making a speech . "We must keep reaching across the table and, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, feed each other," King said. [114] She was 51. She was 12 years old when Martin Luther King Jr. died. Though her mother kept her nave to the controversies so she could "fulfill [her] objective, which was to do the play", that did not stop her from learning of the negativity implemented from her role years later. While in high school, she gained lifelong friends. I thought of that evening often over the years, the unexpected appearance of the living children of a beloved icon. Yolanda King wrote and produced plays; gave speeches to groups that included elementary schoolchildren and Fortune 500 corporations; and acted in commercial movies. Yolanda King was active in education during the start of her acting career, working as a professor for three years at Fordham University before moving to Los Angeles in 1990. Her death came a year after her mother died. When asked then by The Associated Press how she was dealing with the loss of her mother, King responded: "I connected with her spirit so strongly. "[73] At this point in her life, King also served as director of cultural affairs for the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change and was tasked with raising and directing funds for all artistic events.[74]. [90] King joined the rest of her family in February 1997, in advocating a retrial for James Earl Ray, the man convicted of her father's murder, having realized that "without our direct involvement, the truth will never come out. Yolanda at that same ceremony used her craft as an actress to deliver a tribute to her parents, performing a series of skits telling stories including a girl's first ride on a desegregated bus and a college student's recollection of the 1963 desegregation of Birmingham, Ala. Bernice King, Martin Luther King III and Yolanda King participate in a musical tribute to their mother at the new Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Even in her infancy, Yolanda was faced with the threats her father was given when they extended to his family. [39] During a Sunday visit to Church, King was forced to stand before the congregation and explain her actions. There, she joined hands with her siblings and mother along with other civil rights activists, singing We Shall Overcome. [81] In October, King gave support for a Cabrini-Green family that wants to escape the violence, and a fundraiser for their cause. "[109] She found her mother's personal papers in her home. She stated that her father had a "magnificent dream", but admitted that "it still is only a dream. At the time of the honor, King said that their production company had been approached by organizations seeking to arrange special staging of the play for gang members before May 1, when the show's run would end. Their play Stepping into Tomorrow was praised by supervisors as being "entertaining and enlightening." The four King children gathered at the February 2006 funeral of their mother, Coretta Scott King. When the Associated Press asked how she was dealing with her mother's death, she said(via NPR), "I connected with her spirit so strongly. Below, she speaks at a 2000 Human Rights Campaign gala. [63], When presenting herself in 1980 to the GSA staff members, she stated: "Jim Crow [segregation] is dead, but his sophisticated cousin James Crow, Esq., is very much alive. It's a dream about freedomfreedom from oppression, from exploitation, from poverty the dream of a nation and a world where each and every child will have the opportunity to simply be the very best that they can be." [121] She disliked cliches used to define her father and expressed this to Attallah Shabazz, and recalled having seen a play where her father was a "wimp" and carried The Bible with him everywhere.[122]. or redistributed. Funeral arrangements would be announced later, the family said in a statement. She became a secondary caregiver to her younger siblings. In January 2004, King referred to her father as a king, but not as one who "sat on a throne, but one who sat in a dark Birmingham jail. [8] The Kings would have another daughter, almost eight years later, named Bernice (born 1963). Early on, she was aware of racism in her surroundings, especially when her father had to explain to her why she wasn't allowed to go to the amusement park known as "Funtown." ", The Rev. King recalled that her mother had been the main parent and dominant figure in their home, while her father was often away. King outlived her mother by only 16 months, succumbing to complications related to a chronic heart condition on May 15, 2007. [111] She spoke on Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2007 to attendees at the Ebenezer Baptist Church and stated: "We must keep reaching across the table and, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, feed each other,". Speaking last January in Atlanta at Ebenezer Baptist Church where her father preached for many years Yolanda exhorted those observing the national holiday that bears his name to remember that America has not yet achieved peace and racial equality. She became an actress, ran a production company and appeared in numerous films, including "Ghosts of Mississippi," and as Rosa Parks in the 1978 miniseries "King.". She mentioned the possibility that the event could have been a calling for Americans to put their loyalty towards "their race, tribe and nation", as her father once said. Despite this, Shabazz still appeared in the state and performed in the play. By the time she was an adult, she had grown to become a supporter of gay rights and an ally to the LGBT community, as was her mother.
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