People Photos Purpose. Share Memory. She was 7 when her father mentioned her and her siblings in his 1963 speech at the March on Washington: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.". She and her mother, at the time of the bomb's detonation, were in the rear section of their home. After she suggested that he would most likely give it all away, King laughed with her mother. "Thanks for having us.". 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. She wore the mantle of princess, and she wore it with dignity and charm," said the Rev. Flying bug found at Walmart turns out to be rare Jurassic-era insect [51], After graduating from high school, she went to Smith College. The cause of death was believed to be heart disease. Despite this, she did voice opposition to President Ronald Reagan's reluctance to sign the law establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day, her father's national holiday. ", As an actress, she appeared in numerous films, including "Ghosts of Mississippi," and even played civil rights heroine Rosa Parks in the 1978 miniseries "King.". The flag at The King Center, where she was a board member, flew at half-staff on today. [47] In response to her role in the play and her own response to the role, a man wrote to Jet predicting that she would marry a white person before she was eighteen. The actual cause of her death was not determined. Young said she was going to her brother Dexter's home when she collapsed in the doorway and "they were not able to revive her.". Funeral arrangements would be announced later, the family said in a statement. [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. The civil rights leader and wife Coretta Scott King were parents to four kids: sons Martin Luther King III, 65, and Dexter, 61, and daughters Yolanda and Bernice, 59. [25], She kicked off Martin Luther King Jr. Day by starting a week-long celebration on January 12, 1987, and talked to students about opportunities that they had at that point which their parents and grandparents did not have. [67] That same year, she presented the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Public Service to Chicago Mayor Harold Washington during the fifth annual Ebony American Black Achievement Awards. Martin Luther King Jr. 's eldest child who pursued her father's dream of racial harmony through drama and motivational speaking, has died. Yolanda King: 'We will fulfil my grandfather's dream' The granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr speaks at the 2020 March on Washington. "Daughters of M.L. I got my answer less than a decade later when, one ridiculously snowy evening in Washington, D.C., my doorbell rang. [36] She did admit that, had he lived or he been listened to more, "we would be in a far better place. She was an actress and writer, known for King (1978), JAG (1995) and Hopscotch (1980). In 1993, she debunked the thought that her father's "dream" had been anything but a dream, and was quoted as saying "It's easier to build monuments than to make a better world. 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.". Four days later, she and her brothers accompanied their mother to appear at Memphis City Hall. Martin Luther King Jr., and Coretta Scott King, Dexter Scott King, the Rev. Yolanda King was born on November 17, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA. [86], On February 1, 1994, King attempted to speak before a diverse class of students at North Central College. "[100] While in Dallas in March 2004, King related; "It's only in the past half-dozen years or so that I have felt comfortable in my own skin. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. She was 12 years old when Martin Luther King Jr. died. Joseph Lowery, one of her father's close aides in the civil rights movement. King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., said Steve Klein, a spokesman for the King Center. In her teenage years, King preferred to go by her nickname "Yoki." "[87] In July 1994, after seeing some photographs of her father prior to his death, Yolanda lamented that "this [had] brought back a lot of memories. [24] In February 1982, King was a speaker during the centennial of Anne Spencer's birth. She originally wanted $8,000, but negotiated down to $6,500. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid I thought of that evening often over the years, the unexpected appearance of the living children of a beloved icon. 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.Her career as an actor and speaker combined her father's activism with her own artistic pursuits. Being a busy woman, her brother merely treated it as one of her hectic schedules. [39] On April 4, 1970, the second anniversary of her father's death, she and her sister Bernice attended their grandfather Martin Luther King, Sr.'s silent prayer for their father at his gravesite. An alumna of Smith College after graduating in 1976, she was the subject of an essay among the "remarkable women" during a celebration during the college's one hundred and twenty-fifth year[56] and she was a member of the board of directors of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc. (the official national memorial to her father) and was founding Director of the King Center's Cultural Affairs Program. <img src="http://members.cox.net/jnashatty/P1020216.jpg" height=450 width=600> Their play Stepping into Tomorrow was praised by supervisors as being "entertaining and enlightening." She appeared in numerous films and played Rosa Parks in the 1978 miniseries King. Memorialize Yolanda's life with photos and stories about her and the King family history and genealogy. After the move, she founded Higher Ground Productions where she produced and starred in a myriad of films. King spoke from the cathedral's Canterbury Pulpit, the same pulpit Martin Luther King Jr. spoke from on his last Sunday sermon before his death. [13][14] The four King children gathered at the February 2006 funeral of their mother, Coretta Scott King. 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. "She was the first daughter of the civil rights movement and never shamed her parents or her co-activists.". Klein said the family did not know the cause of death but that relatives think it might have been a heart problem. [12] After having not seen her father for five weeks while he was in jail, she finally was able to meet with him alongside both of her brothers for less than half an hour. [50] King would ultimately attend Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts after graduating from high school. Young said she was going to her brother Dexter's home when she collapsed in the doorway and "they were not able to revive her.". 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. [46] Her grandfather Martin Luther King Sr. initially was not going to go to her performance due to opposition by locals, but changed his mind afterward. Yolanda King would have been 51 years old at the time of death or 59 years old today. [114] A public memorial for Yolanda King was held on May 24, 2007, at Ebenezer Baptist Church Horizon Sanctuary in Atlanta, Georgia. 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. King made it clear that while she had not been "endeared" to the institution, she was still "grateful" for her experience. Blame the Federal Reserve. King and Kelly starred in three films together, HBO's "America's Dream" starring Danny Glover and Wesley Snipes, award-winning period film "Odessa," that deals with racial unrest in which King gives a stellar performance as a nanny who lost her son to racial violence, and in Rob Reiner's film "Ghosts of Mississippi" about the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers starring Whoopi Goldberg and Alec Baldwin, King and Kelly played the adult and child versions of Reena Evers. She served on the Partnership Council of Habitat for Humanity, was the first national Ambassador for the American Stroke Association's "Power to End Stroke" Campaign, a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a sponsor of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Human Rights Campaign, and held a lifetime membership in the NAACP. She occasionally experienced threats to her life, designed to intimidate her parents, and was bullied at school. She was also on the student council. [44] The practice of going to her father's grave on the anniversary of either his birth or assassination became an annual ritual for the King family to mourn his death. The children of Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King Yolanda Denise, Martin Luther III, Dexter Scott, and Bernice Albertine have each in their own way worked to carry on their parents' work fighting for racial equality and social justice. "We must keep reaching across the table and, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, feed each other," said Yolanda, urging those who honor the Kings' work to question their own beliefs on prejudice and be a personal force for peace and love. Yolanda, King's nine-year-old granddaughter, made headlines just last month with her rousing speech at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Ms. Kings consistent goal was to infect her work, including her films, with her familys deeper purposes. A flag at The King Center, which King's mother founded in 1968 and where she was a board member, was lowered to half-staff on Wednesday. A few days later, we were glued to the television as we watched his funeral. [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. "[26] Coretta King wrote in her memoirs, My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., that "Martin always said that Yoki came at a time in his life when he needed something to take his mind off the tremendous pressures that bore down upon him. She stated that her father had a "magnificent dream", but admitted that "it still is only a dream. King was an ardent activist for gay rights,[123][124] as was her mother; Coretta Scott protested many times over gay rights. display: none; [114] She was 51. Despite this, King managed to keep up her grades and became involved in high school politics, serving as class president for two years. She founded a production company called Higher Ground Productions. 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. On her company's Web site, she described her mission as encouraging personal growth and positive social change. "[53] At the time of her turmoil in college, King recalled having not known Malcolm X and "didn't understand daddy, so here I was trying to defend something I thought I knew about but really didn't. She was also subject to some harassment by her classmates, describing it as the "era when students were making demands and many black students were closer to the teachings of Malcolm X, or what they thought were his teachings." ATLANTA (AP) On April 4, 1968, a movement lost its patriarch when the Rev. 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. ATLANTA Yolanda Denise King, the Rev. And that's how we can now commemorate his daughter. 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." "She lived with a lot of the trauma of our struggle," said the Rev. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. However, her father reassured her as she began to cry that she was "just as good" as anyone who went to Funtown, and that, one day in the "not too distant future", she was going to be able to go to "any town" along with "all of God's children". Ric Feld/AFP/Getty Images She went to drama school, where was active in student counsels, and in 1976, she graduated from Smith College with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and African American Studies. Her mother told her not to, since her father would not want that. } [120] She also advocated for her father's holiday to be used as a day for helping others, and also expressed dissatisfaction on the basis of people relaxing on his day. King and Dexter were in favor of sale, but their other siblings were not. Andrea Waters King, Yolanda Renee King, and Martin Luther King III, attend the "March On for Washington and Voting Rights" on August 28, 2021 in. [29] King complimented her mother as a "brave and strong lady," leading to a hug between them. All four of MLK's children . She called for Americans to memorialize those who gave their lives for "the struggle for peace and justice. Only a year earlier, Coretta Scott King, wife of MLK and mother to Yolanda, died from complications of ovarian cancer at the age of 78. Even in her infancy, Yolanda was faced with the threats her father was given when they extended to his family. In response, she pushed for "the goal" to be "color acceptance. Image Credit Birthday: November 17, 1955 ( Scorpio) Born In: Montgomery, Alabama, United States 26 15 Civil Rights Activists #23 Human Rights Activists #11 Voice Actresses #17 Quick Facts Also Known As: Yolanda Denise King Died At Age: 51 Family: father: Martin Luther King Jr. In 1974, an apparent madman fired a gun in the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and killed her grandmother Alberta Williams King. Neither she nor her mother was injured when the device exploded on the front porch. . CDC warns drug-resistant stomach bug a "serious public health threat" I am in direct contact with her spirit, and that has given me so much peace and so much strength. The "commitment" to diverse members in the audience and the play itself, was what represented the opportunities for which King fought. King was the first national ambassador to the anti-stroke campaign and she helped spread the word about risk factors and warning signs of stroke, Davis said. 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. Many in attendance did not know her, but came out of respect for the King family's history of peace protests and social justice. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who melded her fathers message of racial equality and nonviolence with her own calling as an actor and a motivational speaker, died on Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 51. She also urged the audience at Ebenezer to be a force for peace and love, and to use the King holiday each year in January to ask tough questions about their own beliefs on prejudice. She felt teenagers were confused and were using drugs as a method to escape their problems. Death 15 May 2007 (aged 51) Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California, USA. Born 1950 and died 2007. Her educational accomplishments continued when she earned a Master of Fine Arts from New York University in 1979 (via Stanford). Coretta had a blood clot move from her heart and lodge in an artery in her brain. In 1999, she acted in Selma, Lord, Selma, about the civil rights march, and in 1996 appeared in Ghosts of Mississippi, about efforts to track down the killer of Medgar Evers, the civil rights leader. While her siblings were trying to find out what it meant, Yolanda already knew. None ; [ 114 ] she was the first daughter of the rights... 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