Yokanda King

May 17, 2007

Daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. dies


Yolanda King, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s eldest child who pursued her father's dream of racial harmony through drama and motivational speaking, collapsed and died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., said Steve Klein, a spokesman for the King Center. She was 51. The family did not know the cause of death, but relatives think it might have been a heart problem, he said.

''She was an actress, author, producer, advocate for peace and nonviolence, who was known and loved for her motivational and inspirational contributions to society,'' the King family said in a statement.

Former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, a lieutenant of her father's who has remained close to the family, said King was going to her brother Dexter's home when she collapsed in the doorway.

Her death came less than a year and a half after her mother, Coretta Scott King, died in January 2006 after battling ovarian cancer and the effects of a stroke. Her struggle prompted her daughter to work with the American Heart Association to raise awareness about strokes, especially among blacks.

Yolanda King, who lived in California, was an actress, ran a production company, and appeared in numerous films, including Ghosts of Mississippi. She played Rosa Parks in the 1978 miniseries King.

''Yolanda was lovely. She wore the mantle of princess, and she wore it with dignity and charm,'' said the Reverend Joseph Lowery, one of her father's close aides in the civil rights movement. He added she was ''thoroughly committed to the movement and found her own means of expressing that commitment through drama.''

The Reverend Jesse Jackson, who also worked with her father, said: ''She lived with a lot of the trauma of our struggle. The movement was in her DNA.'' The Reverend Al Sharpton called her a ''torchbearer for her parents and a committed activist in her own right.''

White House press secretary Tony Snow said President Bush and the first lady were sad to learn of King's death, adding, ''Our thoughts are with the King family today.''

Yolanda King founded and led Higher Ground Productions, which is billed as a ''gateway for inner peace, unity, and global transformation.'' On her company's Web site, she described her mission as encouraging personal growth and positive social change.

The flag at the King Center, where she was a board member, flew at half-staff on Wednesday.

Yolanda Denise King—nicknamed Yoki by the family—was born November 17, 1955, in Montgomery, Ala., where her father was then preaching. Her brother Martin III was born in 1957; brother Dexter in 1961; and sister Bernice in 1963.

She was just 2 weeks old when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus there, leading to the Montgomery bus boycott spearheaded by her father.

When she was 10 weeks old, the King family home was bombed on January 30, 1956, as her father attended a boycott rally. Neither she nor her mother was injured when the device exploded on the front porch.

In 1963, when she was 7, her father mentioned her and her siblings at the March on Washington, saying: ''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 was 12 when her father was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968.

King was a 1976 graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Mass., where she majored in theater and Afro-American studies. She also earned a master's degree in theater from New York University.

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