Alberta King was the matriarch of a movement. Here’s the triumphant, tragic tale of Martin Luther King Jr.’s mother
Daughter of an Atlanta minister, Alberta Williams King was raised in Ebenezer Baptist Church, gave birth to the civil rights movement and suffered a series of unspeakable tragedies late in life.
Alberta Williams King gave the civil rights movement melody, a tune of great triumph and a coda of grievous tragedy.
The gospel musician and mother had already buried two sons when the sounds of a Sunday testimony to Christ were interrupted by gunfire – her violent death before the altar largely forgotten to history.
Alberta King was the mother of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Christian crusade for civil rights.
"Just like any movement that’s ever been successful, they’ve always been established in Christ and in God," her granddaughter, Dr. Alveda King, told Fox News Digital.
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The chair of the America First Policy Institute’s Center for the American Dream, Alveda King is the daughter of Rev. Alfred Daniel, Alberta's third child, and the niece of his older brother, Martin Jr.
She added, "Men and women who fear God are genuine leaders of justice. That’s true through biblical history and its true through modern history."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., poses with his mother (left) and his wife at Harlem Hospital in New York City on Sept. 30, 1958, during his first news conference after he was stabbed by Izola Curry on Sept. 20. King said he had no ill will toward Curry. (Getty Images)
Alberta King and the civil rights movement were born by the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia — each bathed in the light of faith at birth.
She was a musician, a scholar and a champion for civil rights before the words entered the cultural lexicon.
"I often tell the boys around the campus I have the best mother in the world." — Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
"I just remember her grace, her beauty, her loving spirit and her dignity. She was a beautifully fabulous musician," said Alveda King.
Alberta King was, most notably, devoted to the most important role in any society. As a mother, she brought three children into the world and taught them to work to make that world a better place.
Dr. Alveda King (shown here) is a granddaughter of Alberta King, the mother of Martin Luther King Jr. Said Alveda King to Fox News Digital, "I just remember her grace, her beauty, her loving spirit and her dignity. She was a beautifully fabulous musician." (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
She was quite gifted in the role of mother, as King Jr. wrote in a letter home while at seminary school.
"I often tell the boys around the campus I have the best mother in the world."
Nourished by music and the Gospel
Alberta Christine Williams was born in Atlanta on Sept. 13, 1904, to Rev. Adam Daniel and Jennie Celeste (Parks) Williams.
She was essentially raised in Ebenezer Baptist Church, one of America’s most influential houses of worship.
Her father was minister in the early days of the church, as Atlanta itself was still fighting to overcome the devastation of the Civil War.
The front of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. (Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
"On March 14, 1894, the Rev. Adam Daniel Williams was called to pastor Ebenezer, a struggling church with 17 members on the roll," the church states in its online history.
The church grew rapidly, adding hundreds of congregants in the years ahead. Rev. Williams liquidated the church mortgage to move to a larger location.
Alberta learned to love music, was nourished by the Gospel and proved a gifted student.
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She was only 20 when she received her teaching certificate from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, now Hampton University, in Virginia.
Alberta taught briefly before marrying Michael King – later Martin Luther Sr. – on Thanksgiving Day 1926.
Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., known as Daddy King, according to the church history, was Ebenezer's assistant pastor from 1927 to 1930; he assumed leadership of the congregation in 1931, following the death of his father-in-law.
On Dec. 10, 1964, relatives of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. board an airplane to attend the social reformer's Nobel Peace Prize presentation ceremony, JFK International Airport, New York City. Left to right: King's father, Martin Luther King Sr., his mother, Albert King, his wife, Coretta Scott King, and his sister, Christine Farris. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Daughter Willie Christine was born in 1927, followed by two boys, Michael, later Martin Luther, Jr., in 1929, and Alfred Daniel in 1930.
"We called her Big Mama," said granddaughter King.
The name was a testament more to her strength of spirit than her size.
"She was a small lady. A petite lady. Maybe about 5'2". My grandfather called her Honeybunch."
"Just like any movement that’s ever been successful, they’ve always been established in Christ and in God." — Alveda King
The King bunch was not enough to hold back Alberta from pursuing knowledge. She was 33 years old, with three young children, when she graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Morris Brown College.
She spent most of her life, 40 years of it, as music director, organist and/or choir director of Ebenezer Baptist Church.
"Her choirs were one of the main reasons so many people from all walks of life came to visit Ebenezer as a tourist destination, a religious staple in the South and living monument of the civil rights movement," author Anna Malaika Tubbs writes in her 2021 book, "The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation."
Elaborate stage set at the "Gone With the Wind" premiere, Dec. 15, 1939. (George Karger/Getty Images)
Tubbs notes that the chorale's prestige earned it a front-row seat to one of the biggest cultural events in Atlanta history.
Alberta King's choir performed at the world movie premiere of "Gone with the Wind."
‘Love your enemies, it will drive them crazy’
Alberta and Rev. King Sr. marched on behalf of racial equality as early as the 1930s, said their granddaughter, long before the marches led by Martin Jr. threw an international spotlight on lingering racial injustice in the United States.
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Both sons became pastors.
Martin Jr. brazenly championed Christ and challenged the national status quo.
Rev. Martin Luther (right front, wearing hat) and his wife Alberta King (beside him) are shown leading an early civil rights march in the 1930s outside Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. The Kings were the parents of Willie Christine, Martin Luther Jr. and A.D. King. Dr. Alveda King shared this image from her personal collection with Fox News Digital for this article. (Courtesy Dr. Alveda King)
The Kings did not savage the nation's heritage; they dared America to meet the promise of its founding.
"Never before in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profound, eloquent and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality," Rev. King Jr. said of the Declaration of Independence in an Ebenezer sermon on July 4, 1965.
"The American dream reminds us … that every man is an heir of the legacy of dignity and worth."
The King family knew that pulpit politics created enemies.
Martin Luther King Jr., Henry Elkins and King's mother, Alberta Williams King, circa 1962. (Public Domain)
They responded with the promise of nonviolence. It's a lesson the King children learned at an early age.
"My grandmother had a picture on the wall in the family home," said granddaughter Alveda King. "It said, ‘Love your enemies, it will drive them crazy.’"
The family's status grew around Atlanta; Martin Jr. blossomed into a stirring orator and his reputation as leader of America's quest for racial equality spread around the world.
American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) speaks at a rally held at the Robert Taylor Houses, Chicago, Illinois, in the 1960s. (Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images)
Alberta was named the city's "Mother of the Year" by Atlanta Daily World newspaper in 1957; Martin Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
Yet the mother lived those years suffering every parent's worst nightmare, compounded by growing threats that turned to harm.
Among other attacks, Martin Jr. was hospitalized after he was stabbed during a book signing in New York City in 1958.
"Through many sleepless nights, she found herself praying for their safety," writes Tubbs, of her three children who were often far from home.
Alberta King's prayers went unanswered on the night of April 4, 1968.
A woman honked her horn frantically and yelled something inaudible as Alberta and Rev. King Sr. arrived at the church that night, in an account of the day told in "The Three Mothers."
"Something was wrong," Tubbs writes. "The two rushed into the church building to turn on the radio."
The deceased's brother, Reverend Alfred Daniel King (1930-1969), widow Coretta Scott King, and children Martin Luther King III, Dexter King and Bernice King at the funeral of assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, April 9, 1968. (Santi Visalli/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
Martin Luther King Jr., a preacher of the Gospel and hero to millions, had been shot dead at 6 p.m. while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
"Her son, her precious and peaceful son, was gone, taken away from this world in an act of pure hatred and violence," writes Tubbs.
Rev. King Jr.'s younger brother, Rev. A.D. King, assumed his place as the spiritual leader of the church the family had lifted from 17 members to international prominence.
"Her son, her precious and peaceful son, was gone, taken away from this world in an act of pure hatred and violence." — Anna Malaika Tubbs
Fifteen months later, on July 21, 1969, Rev. King and Alberta King received a frantic phone call from their grandson.
A.D., the youngest of their two sons, had drowned "mysteriously," according to Tubbs, in the swimming pool at his home.
Neither of Alberta's boys reached age 40. Martin was 39, A.D. was 38.
Screen capture shows the Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. (1899-1984) and his wife Alberta Williams King (1905-1974) as they attend the televised funeral of their son, American civil rights and religious leader Martin Luther King Jr., which was held at Ebenezer Church on the campus of Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia, on April 9, 1968. King was assassinated on April 4. (CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)
"It was crushing as a mother. It saddened her deeply," Alveda King said of the tragic deaths of her uncle and then her father.
"It’s all part of the history of our family, unfortunately."
‘Forgive those who trespass against us’
Alberta King was seated in a place of love and comfort that she had known her entire life on the morning of June 30, 1974.
Her fingers touched the keys of the Ebenezer Baptist Church organ as she performed "The Lord’s Prayer" during Sunday worship.
"The song finished, and most of the congregation had their eyes closed and heads bowed in preparation for prayer when they heard a shout," Atlanta Magazine reported in 2012.
A group picture taken at a lunch in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Nobel Peace Prize. Left to right, Jackie Robinson; Mary Rockefeller, the governor's wife; Martin Luther King Jr., Gov. Rockefeller, Coretta Scott King, Rachel Robinson, Jackie Robinson's wife, Alberta Williams King and Martin Luther King Sr. (Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
A young man named Marcus Wayne Chenault Jr. raced to the front of the church, faced the choir and, according to several accounts, "wildly" emptied every round of two revolvers.
Alberta King was killed in front of the congregation of her family's world-famous church, performing with her beloved choir.
The mother of the civil rights movement was 69 years old, martyred for her faith in Christ.
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us," states the prayer she had just completed.
Her oldest died much the same way six years earlier, shot dead after preaching his faith. "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!" Rev. King Jr. thundered as he walked off the stage in Memphis on April 3, the last words he spoke in public.
The killer of Alberta King, himself African American, appeared deranged.
"Chenault had apparently decided 15 months [earlier] that Black ministers were a menace to Black people and should be killed," The New York Times reported in July 1974, in a widely distributed wire story.
Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., "grieved terribly" after losing both sons and his wife, said his granddaughter.
"But he would always say, ‘Thank God for what we have left.’"
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Ebenezer Baptist Church is now a national landmark, the centerpiece of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park.
The power and prestige of the sanctuary stretches to Capitol Hill.
Alberta King, left, was the mother of Martin Luther King Jr., shown here with his wife Coretta. Right, sign outside Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Alberta's father, husband and son were all ministers. (Getty Images)
Dr. Ralph G. Warnock is only the fifth senior pastor in the history of the church. He’s known outside the church as U.S. Sen. Warnock.
The Williams family home, where Alberta was raised and where she and Rev. King Sr. lived as newlyweds and produced three children, is also part of the National Historical Park.
Alberta King was born into Ebenezer Baptist Church, died at the church — and raised a family spirited by the church.
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"She was a beautiful Christian woman," Alveda King told Fox News Digital, offering a brief but powerful memorial to her grandmother.
"She gave her all for Christ and for her family and for humanity."
To read more stories in this unique "Meet the American Who…" series from Fox News Digital, click here.
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