In 1956, a number of white supremacists bombed the King household. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Bernice King at Yolanda King Memorial May 24, 2007 DryerBuzz An Original Digital 2.67K subscribers 309K views 15 years ago When Bernice brings the word, let's just say the word is delivered.. . Market data provided by Factset. In 1978 she starred as Rosa Parks in the TV miniseries King (based on her father's life and released on DVD in 2005). 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). [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. Born in 1955 in Montgomery, Ala., King was just an infant when her home was bombed during the turbulent civil rights era. 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.". She asked her mother at this time, if she should hate the man who killed her father. I remember being particularly focused on one of them: Robert Kennedy was somber, even tearful at times, as he knelt and crossed himself and prayed with his wife, Ethel, before the service began. [119] She made it clear that month that she was not trying to fill her father's footsteps, noting jokingly that "They're too big" and that she would "fall and break [her] neck". I was a high-school junior when Martin Luther King was assassinated. [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]. "[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. "[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. The four children of the civil rights activist noticed "something was happening". "She was the first daughter of the civil rights movement and never shamed her parents or her co-activists.". She wrote her first play at 8, and her mother sent her to acting school the next year. In the Fall of 1968, King attended Henry Grady Highschool, in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, she was president of her sophomore and junior class, and vice president of her senior class. She was just 10 weeks old when the King family home was bombed in Jan. 30, 1956, as her father attended a boycott rally. She reflected "I had never read his works. This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial. King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica,. While her siblings were trying to find out what it meant, Yolanda already knew. [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. Mrs. King said the children attended because they wanted to. 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. It was the first time she had ever been arrested. Her career as an actor and speaker combined her father's activism with her own artistic pursuits. King was also an author and advocate for peace and nonviolence, and held memberships in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which her father co-founded in 1957 and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 1894 shipwreck found in Lake Huron, confirming "powerful, tragic story" 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. Anyone can read what you share. Yolanda has mostly been portrayed in films that revolve around her parents. Sharpton said Yolanda King was a "torch bearer for her parents and a committed activist in her own right. In life, she said, I had to be prim and proper and poised the King daughter. [50] King would ultimately attend Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts after graduating from high school. King was scheduled to visit Houston this weekend to attend numerous events related to the "Power to End Stroke'' campaign sponsored by the local chapter of the American Heart Association, Houston Gulf Coast Division. She received a standing ovation afterwards, alongside a thunderous applause. The family did not know the cause of death but that relatives think it might have been a heart problem, he said. In fact, she proved that the smile was more powerful and sweeter because it had to press itself through mournfulness to be seen, force itself through cruelty to show that the light of survival shines for us all." King; two brothers, Martin Luther King III and Dexter Scott King; and an extended family. At her father's Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, she performed a series of solo skits that told stories including a girl's first ride on a desegregated bus and a college student's recollection of the 1963 campaign to desegregate Birmingham, Ala. She also urged the audience to be a force for peace and love, and to use the King holiday each year to ask tough questions about their own beliefs about prejudice. [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. There, she joined hands with her siblings and mother along with other civil rights activists, singing We Shall Overcome. 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." The play was directed towards teens and focused on the 10th year reunion of six high school friends. [68], She celebrated her father's holiday on January 16, 1986, and attended a breakfast in Chicago with Mayor Harold Washington. Yolanda King was born on November 17, 1955 and died on May 15, 2007. 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. [103] King was having a conversation with her mother in her home when she stopped talking. [79] King stressed in 1992 that love would help people make their mark on the world. Before her death, she led a production company called Higher Ground Productions an organization whose mission is to provide a "gateway for inner peace, unity, and global transformation," as per NPR. It began on Jan. 30, 1956, when Yolanda, nicknamed Yoki, was 2 months old and the familys house was bombed in the Montgomery bus boycott. FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2006, file photo, from left, the children of the Rev. She did not understand, and asked her mother Coretta why she was not able to go. She allowed me to give myself permission to be me." Yolanda King, the Rev. On December 9, 1990, she canceled a planned appearance in a play in Tucson, Arizona[75] and ignored a boycott going on at the time by civil rights groups and other activists for Arizona voters rejecting the proposal of Martin Luther King Jr. Day being celebrated there. 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. Yolanda King was born on November 17, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA. Martin Luther King III uttered that "Yolanda is still in business. But walking through the first part of the exhibit I felt that terror. King and her brother Martin III bragged about their selflessness at school. She wore the mantle of princess, and she wore it with dignity and charm," said the Rev. Photos honoring the life of Yolanda King from Santa Monica, California - ADVERTISEMENT - Play Music Pause Music Tweet; Help | Login | Sign Up; . The death comes just over a year after the death of her mother, Coretta Scott King a civil rights leader in her own right at the age of 78, of complications from ovarian cancer, and after a battle with the effects from a stroke. display: none; WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 18: Yolanda Renee King, the granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., finishes preaching at the Washington National Cathedral January 18, 2022 in Washington, DC. When she replied "Your father is going to jail so that you can go to Funtown." She returned to Smith College on January 26, 1989. King served as a spokesperson for her mother during the illness that would eventually lead to her death. "[126] Like her parents and siblings, King did not publicly affiliate with a political party. During the family's interview with Mike Wallace in December 1968, Yolanda was introduced by her mother and revealed her role in keeping the family together. (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.) King, Malcolm X Tour With Play That Boosts Self Improvement", Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, "Yolanda King's Stage Direction; Using Theater to Fulfill Her Mission-and Her Father's Mission", "Coretta Scott King biography on Achievement.org", "King's Daughter Urges Cultures To Blend Talents", "Dr. King's 3 Children Visit Him; He Is Allowed Out of Jail Cell; Wife Says They 'Accept' His Absence From Home as in Aid of Negroes", "Dr. MLK speaks to his daughter abt Racism "Fun Town", "JFK's Still-Vibrant Example Continues to Inspire Millions", "Nobel's $$$ and Cents Interest King's Daughter", "Yolanda King, actor and Dr. Martin Luther King's Daughter, dies at 51", "Yolanda King helps others live their dreams", "Yoda King, 51; Child of Civil Rights Leader", "King's Daughter Says Poverty, War Top Issues", "Mrs. Kennedy Visits Mrs. King And 4 Children Before Funeral", "King's Kids Assured Education by Belafonte", "Dr. King's Father Leads Silent Prayer at Rights Leader's Grave", "The Vision Marches On With Martin Luther King Jr.'s Children", "Yolanda King, 51; Child of Civil Rights Leader", "King's Daughter Tells What His Famous Name is Doing to Her Life", "Yolanda King Uses Spotlight As Tool For Change", "Dr. King's Family Observes 7th Anniversary of Slaying", "Actress, Producer, Author Yolanda King '76 Dies", "Yolanda King, daughter of MLK, dies at age 51", "King, Malcom X kin get their act together", "King, Malcolm X Daughters' Play Will Be Staged", "Malcolm X's, King Children Are Soul Mates", "NEW YORK DAY BY DAY; Dr. King's Daughter Assails Her Generation", "Yolanda King, Harold Washington on Achievement Awards", "REAGAN TELLS PUPILS OF STRUGGLE WON BY DR. KING", "Black History Parade, King Speech Draw Thousands", "Daughters of King, Malcolm X Also Have a Message", "Son Dexter To Take Reign of The King Center in Atlanta", "2 Black Leaders' Daughters May Ignore Arizona Boycott", "Yolanda King Cancels Appearance in Arizona", "U.S. She was 51 King. He had come up for the festivities, and he had two friends with him. Sometime after Martin Luther King's assassination, King told her mother "Mom, I'm not going to cry because my dad is not dead. Garrow says his first inclination when he heard of Yolanda's death was: This is it. To Yolanda, it seemed as if adults naturally went to jail occasionally, because all those she knew seemed to do that. In a twenty-four-minute-long speech, she brought up the presidential election of that year, and also quoted the words of Bobby Kennedy by recalling his line which he took from George Bernard Shaw, that of "Some men see things as they are and say why? [89], In the fall of 1995, at age 39, she joined Ilyasah Shabazz and Reena Evers in saluting their mothers as they chaired an attempt at registering one million African-American women to vote in the presidential election of 1996. 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. She was a reserved and quiet person who loved acting. [4] Despite this, the front porch was damaged and glass broke in the home. King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 51, said Steve Klein, a spokesman for the King Center. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Klein said the family did not know the cause of death but that relatives think it might have been a heart problem. May 16, 2007 / 5:32 AM Yolanda King, 51, Actor and Dr. King's Daughter, Dies By Douglas Martin May 17, 2007 Yolanda King, the eldest child of the Rev. 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