In June 1969, I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Alberta Williams King and her husband, Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. . She and her husband “Daddy” King were friends of my family and I remember how warm and gracious she was when I was introduced to them. Since she’s unable to refute some of the comments that have been made about her murder, let me set the record straight: Mrs. King was assassinated.
Her relationship to her husband and son, in addition to her own activities and standing within the African American community made her a target. She was active in the NAACP, National Baptist Convention, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and the YWCA, among other organizations. Yes, her assailant utilized an insanity defense. However, to enlighten the readers on this thread who did not have the benefit of following the history of this event in real time, here’s a quote from the New York Times and its link:
"Mr. Chenault, the son of a middle-class black family in Dayton, Ohio, had just been welcomed to the church for a morning service when he rose from his seat in the front pew, drew two pistols and started firing.
Alberta King, 70, was fatally struck at the church’s new organ as she was playing “The Lord’s Prayer.” Mr. Boykin was standing nearby when he was shot. One woman among the 400 worshippers was wounded…
At his arraignment, Mr. Chenault told a magistrate that he had come to Atlanta “on a mission,” and said he decided months earlier that black ministers were a menace to black people and must be killed.
He also told the police that his mission was to kill the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., but he shot Mrs. King instead because she was close to him. Their son Dr. King, the civil rights leader, was assassinated by an escaped convict, James Earl Ray, in Memphis on April 4, 1968."
But for her relationship to her sons and her husband, Mrs. King would not have died while playing the organ during her church service. What Marcus Wayne Chenault did was premeditated. Two weeks before the murders at Ebenezer Baptist Church, he informed friends and coworkers that he would become famous. Evidence against Chenault included a hit list which listed the names of civil rights figures like the Rev. Jesse Jackson and others connected to the King family. Chenault was also considered a person of interest in the murders of two ministers in Dayton that took place prior to the Atlanta shooting. Prior to the murders, he claimed to be a Muslim, a Black Hebrew, gay, straight, and a host of other identities. Some accounts purport that he was coached to commit his crimes.
Considering that the Rev. A.D. Williams King (Martin’s brother) had died under suspicious circumstances not long after his brother was killed and the FBI still had the King family under surveillance, “Daddy” King stated in his wife’s eulogy that he would “keep fighting” and expected to join her “soon”. I understand that many TPM readers may not have had the benefit of reading Ebony, Jet, Sepia or any of the then-numerous African American newspapers from this time period. However, by 1974, many of us had firsthand knowledge of COINTELPRO activities within minority communities and expressed serious doubts about the so-called randomness of Mrs. King’s death. Chenault may or may not have acted alone but Mrs. King was assassinated. It’s time to stop the whitesplaining.