Yolanda King | |
|---|---|
 King in 1995 | |
| Born | Yolanda Denise King November 17, 1955 Montgomery, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | May 15, 2007 (aged 51) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Yoki |
| Education | Smith College (BA) New York University (MFA) |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, activist |
| Years active | 1976–2007 |
| Known for | Daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. |
| Parent(s) | Martin Luther King Jr. Coretta Scott King |
| Relatives |
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Yolanda Denise King (November 17, 1955 – May 15, 2007) was an activist for African-American rights and first-born child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, who pursued artistic and entertainment endeavors and public speaking. Her childhood experience was greatly influenced by her father's highly public activism.
She was born two weeks before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public transit bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She occasionally experienced threats to her life, designed to intimidate her parents, and was bullied at school. When her father was assassinated on April 4, 1968, the 12-year-old King showed her composure during the public funeral and mourning events. King joined her mother and siblings in marches and was lauded by such figures as Harry Belafonte, who established a trust fund for her and her siblings. She became a secondary caregiver to her younger siblings.
In her teenage years, she became an effective leader of her high school class and was covered by the magazines Jet and Ebony. 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. While in high school, she gained lifelong friends. It was the first and only institution where King was not harassed or mistreated because of who her father was. However, she was still misjudged and mistrusted because of her skin color, based on perceptions founded solely upon her relationship with her father. Despite this, King managed to keep up her grades and became involved in high school politics, serving as class president for two years. King aroused controversy in high school for her role in a play. She was credited with having her father's sense of humor.[1]
In the 1990s, she supported a retrial of James Earl Ray and publicly stated that she did not hate him. 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). 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. 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. King served as a spokesperson for her mother during the illness that would eventually lead to her death. King outlived her mother by only 16 months, succumbing to complications related to a chronic heart condition on May 15, 2007.
- ^ "Yolanda King's Stage Direction; Using Theater to Fulfill Her Mission-and Her Father's Mission". The Washington Post. July 2, 1988.[dead link]