Martin Luther King, Sr. speaking at a Sunday service at Ebenezer Baptist Church following the death of his son A. D. King, Atlanta, Georgia, 1969 July 27 | July 27, 1969
Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. speaks during a Sunday service at Ebenezer Baptist Church on July 27, 1969 following the death and burial of his son A. D. King.
Alfred Daniel Williams King (July 30, 1930 - July 21, 1969) was an American Baptist minister and civil rights activist. He was the younger brother of Martin Luther King Jr.
Alfred Daniel Williams King was born July 30, 1930, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was a son of Reverend Martin Luther King (1899-1984), and Alberta Williams King (1904-1974), the youngest of their three children (the other two being Willie Christine, born September 11, 1927, and Martin Luther King Jr., born January 15, 1929). In contrast to his peacemaking brother, Martin, A. D.-according to his father-was "a little rough at times" and "let his toughness build a reputation throughout our neighborhood".[1]: 126  Less interested in academics than his siblings, King started a family of his own while still a teenager and attended college later in his life. He was married on June 17, 1950, to Naomi Ruth Barber King (born November 17, 1931), with whom he had five children: Alveda, Alfred Jr., Derek, Darlene, and Vernon.
Although as a youth King had strongly resisted his father's ministerial urgings, he eventually began assisting his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church. In 1959, King graduated from Morehouse College. That same year, he left Ebenezer Baptist to become pastor of Mount Vernon First Baptist Church in Newnan, Georgia.
Involvement in the Civil Rights Movement
King often traveled with his brother and was with him in Memphis on April 4, 1968, when his brother was shot dead. King was in the room directly beneath Martin's at the Lorraine Hotel when the gun blast went off, and when he saw his brother lying mortally wounded, he had to be restrained by others due to the shock and overwhelming emotion he was experiencing.
Later life[edit source]
For the last part of his life, he suffered from alcoholism and depression.[5] In 1965, King moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he became pastor at Zion Baptist Church. While there, King continued to fight for civil rights and was successful in a 1968 campaign for an open housing ordinance which is today a component of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. After his brother's assassination in April 1968, there was speculation that King might become the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King, however, made no effort to assume his deceased brother's role, although he did continue to be active in the Poor People's Campaign and in other work on behalf of SCLC.
After Martin's death, King returned to Ebenezer Baptist Church, where, in September 1968, he was installed as co-pastor. He was praised by his father as "an able preacher, a concerned, loving pastor".
Death[edit source]
On July 21, 1969, nine days before his 39th birthday, King was found dead in the swimming pool at his home.[5] The cause of his death was listed as an accidental drowning.[4][6][7][8] However, it is likely that the stress of his brother's high-profile activist work and the trauma of his assassination exacerbated A.D.'s heart problems, rumor disclaimed by his wife Naomi Ruth Barber King, of which there was a family history (three of A.D.'s children later died of heart attacks, disclaimed by Naomi King: Alfred II in 1986, Darlene at age 20 on July 9, 1976,[9] and Vernon at the age 49 on May 1, 2009; his father, Martin Luther King Sr., also died of a heart attack in 1984).
His father, Martin Luther 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.[1]: 192  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." Naomi King, his widow, said, "There is no doubt in my mind that the system killed my husband. My Boaz was murdered."