CLASSROOM IN THE ACTIVITIES Dr. King’s brother, Alfred Daniels Williams King, a church leader and civil rights activist

By HERB BOYD Special to the Amnews

In examining the extraordinary, well-lived life of Christine King Farris, Dr. King’s elder sister, recently, there was passing attention to her younger brother, Alfred Daniels Williams King, who stood in the shadows of his renowned siblings. Nonetheless, A.D. King made a significant contribution to the Black church and the Civil Rights Movement.

Born on July 30, 1930, in Atlanta, Georgia, A.D. King is mainly remembered as the brother of Dr. King, but he made his own mark in the Civil Rights Movement, and as a religious leader. Unlike his celebrated older siblings, A.D. King was a comparatively late arrival to these callings, but once in the fold, applied himself selflessly to the fight for equal justice and freedom.

He was still a teenager when he married Naomi Ruth Barber King, with whom he had five children: Alveda, Alfred, Jr., Derek, Darlene, and Vernon. In 1959, he graduated from Morehouse College. That same year, he left the Ebenezer Baptist Church to become pastor of Mount Vernon First Baptist Church in Newnan, Georgia. A year later, he was arrested, along with Dr. King and 70 other protesters, during a sit-in at a lunch counter in Atlanta. Gradually, A.D. King became more involved in the Civil Rights Movement while adopting his brother’s strong belief in nonviolence.

He remained in the background, content to be merely a soldier in the battle for equal rights. Not being in the spotlight didn’t mean he was insignificant—he can be seen at many marches and demonstrations, including “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, and later in the Poor People’s Campaign. His activism continued in the March on Washington and Operation Food Basket. In 1963, as Dr. King and his associates began planning the Birmingham offensive, A.D. King was selected by his brother to be one of the volunteers to be jailed.

A.D. King was sleeping in his church when it was bombed by white racists. “He ran through the smoke to find his wife Naomi dazed but unhurt in the living room, and together, they were evacuating their five children through the back door when a larger dynamite bomb blew a hole eight feet high in the brick façade and sent the front door flying in chunks against the back wall of the living room,” Taylor Branch wrote in “Parting the Waters.” “The fire department later calculated the damage at one-third of the parsonage value, but the Kings’ immediate worry was the fear of more bombs.

“By the time the police and fire officials pronounced the area free of undetonated explosives, upwards of a thousand Negroes had gathered, in various stages of undress,” Branch continued. “A number of them threatened retaliation against whites, especially against the policemen who were ordering them to go home, but A.D. King grabbed a megaphone and preached nonviolence. He sent some of his church deacons through the crowd to start up freedom songs, and when he went inside to notify his Atlanta relatives of the bombings, he held up the telephone to let his brother Martin hear the reassuring sounds of ‘We Shall Overcome’ in the background.”

Branch expounded on A.D. King’s resolve, which stood in contrast to his previous insecurity and resig- nation. He asserted himself again when news spread that A.G. Gaston’s Motel had been bombed. As the tension grew in the city and the crowd expanded, A.D. King shouted into his megaphone above the rancor of the demonstrators: “This is Rev. A.D. King speaking to you. Please put your bricks down.” Later, when he arrived at the motel, he resumed his call for nonviolence, and was successful in calming the outbreak and luring many protesters into a nearby parking lot, convincing them to sing “We Shall Overcome.”

This may have been A.D. King’s shining moment in the movement, providing him with the confidence he needed to stand with his brother, particularly in Memphis on April 4, 1968. He was in the room directly beneath Dr King’s at the Lorraine Hotel when the shot rang out that took his brother’s life. He watched his brother lying on the balcony, hardly able to contain himself with hurt and anger.

There was wide speculation that A.D. King would become head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), but he made no effort to take command of the organization, choosing to lend his service to the Poor People’s Campaign. Meanwhile, he had been pastor of the Zion Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, since 1965. In response to the trauma of the recent past, he sought relief in alcohol, which sent him into severe bouts of depression.

On July 21, 1969, nine days after his 39th birthday, Alfred was found dead in the swimming pool at his home. Accidental drowning was listed as the cause of death, although this was troubling for the family who knew he was a very capable swimmer. There were also rumors that he might have succumbed to a heart attack, an ailment that afflicted several family members. “There is no doubt in my mind that the system killed my husband,” said Naomi King. “My Boaz was murdered.”

FIND OUT MORE

Nearly every book about Dr. Alfred King has at least a few moments of reflection on his life, which often lingered in the shadows of his famous brother.

Discussion

Much has been speculated about Alfred King’s death and more research is required for a final summation.

Place In Context

Like his brother, Alfred was 39 when he died, although the cause of his death remains an ongoing discussion, whether by heart attack or an accumulation of trauma over the years.