King outlived her mother by only 16 months, succumbing to complications related to a chronic heart condition on May 15, 2007. Yolanda King was the most visible of the four children during this year's Martin Luther King Day in January, the first since her mother's death. She originally wanted $8,000, but negotiated down to $6,500. Search instead in Creative? Joseph Lowery, said Wednesday he was stunned and saddened by the news of King's death. A young cousin who lived in Atlanta and had worked on the Carter campaign had stopped by during inauguration week. ", As an actress, she appeared in numerous films, including "Ghosts of Mississippi," and even played civil rights heroine Rosa Parks in the 1978 miniseries "King.". Market data provided by Factset. She recalled having met a friend that was scared of being acquainted with her, because of her father's identity and expressed her thoughts in the colleges she wished to attend. Martin Luther King Jr., and a friend of the gay community, died on May 15. [66], She showed dissatisfaction with her "generation" on January 20, 1985, and referred to them as being "laid-back and unconcerned", and "forgetting the sacrifices that allowed them to get away with being so laid-back". She founded a dramatic group with Atallah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, the slain civil rights leader, and started a theatrical production company, Higher Ground Productions, dedicated to what she called personal empowerment. [39] On April 4, 1970, the second anniversary of her father's death, she and her sister Bernice attended their grandfather Martin Luther King, Sr.'s silent prayer for their father at his gravesite. Yolanda King's cause of death remains unknown, although her family including her sister Bernice King and two brothers, Martin and Dexter King believe a heart problem may have contributed to her death (via NPR). [67] That same year, she presented the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Public Service to Chicago Mayor Harold Washington during the fifth annual Ebony American Black Achievement Awards. Lawmakers and activists including Andrea Waters King , Yolanda Renee King, the granddaughter of Rev. King was cremated,[115] in accordance with her wishes. The next-youngest, Dexter, leaned silently against his mother's side. The only reason why Black History Month was created and still exists is because America is still struggling and trying to come to grips, come to terms with the diversity of its people. [118], Despite this, she was quoted in January 2003 of saying that she was "a 100 percent, dyed-in-the-wool, card-carrying believer in 'The Dream'. [51], After graduating from high school, she went to Smith College. Yolanda King, the eldest daughter of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, has died in California, family friends said on Wednesday. Davis said Houston heart association officials have received no specific information on the cause of King's death but added that King had a family history of heart disease and stroke. Rest in peace Yoki! "Volunteers and staff of the American Heart Association will hold the Power of Legacy dinner on Saturday evening, which will pay special tribute to King and her legacy.''. The head of the school was Walt Roberts, father of the actors Eric and Julia Roberts. [130] During a 2009 reunion at her alma mater Smith College, a walk was done in her memory by fellow alumnae.[131]. By the time she was an adult, she had grown to become a supporter of gay rights and an ally to the LGBT community, as was her mother. She was the most visible and outspoken among the Kings' four children during activities honoring this year's Martin Luther King Day in January, the first since Coretta Scott King's death. She held membership at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which her father helped found in 1957, and she was a notable advocate for non-violence. CDC warns drug-resistant stomach bug a "serious public health threat" Her father admitted that he had never adjusted to bringing up children under "inexplicable conditions". Her childhood experience was greatly influenced by her father's highly public activism. 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. She just moved upstairs." In 1960, they moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where she was immersed in social upheaval. Her mother, Coretta Scott King, died last year. Marty was quieter, but he tossed in a quip or two when he could manage to get a word in edgewise. She was also on the student council. Al Sharpton called Yolanda King was a "torch bearer for her parents and a committed activist in her own right.". King joined her mother and siblings in marches and was lauded by such figures as Harry Belafonte, who established a trust fund for her and her siblings. She portrayed Rosa Parks, who sparked the civil rights movement by refusing to give up her bus seat in a miniseries, King (1978), and Betty Shabazz, the wife of Malcolm X, in Death of a Prophet (1981). "[37] King openly stated years later that she did not hate James Earl Ray.[38]. Yolanda Denise King was an African-American activist, actress and first-born child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. 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. [17] For Christmas 1963, King and her siblings accepted a sacrificial Christmas as appealed by their parents and only received a single gift. 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. In 1993, she debunked the thought that her father's "dream" had been anything but a dream, and was quoted as saying "It's easier to build monuments than to make a better world. In 1999, she acted in Selma, Lord, Selma, about the civil rights march, and in 1996 appeared in Ghosts of Mississippi, about efforts to track down the killer of Medgar Evers, the civil rights leader. I was just someone who loved someone, and I knew he had done great things and now people didn't appreciate it." (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.) [21] At the age of eight after writing her first play,[22][23] she also enrolled in the only integrated drama school of that time. Yolanda King wrote and produced plays; gave speeches to groups that included elementary schoolchildren and Fortune 500 corporations; and acted in commercial movies. [41] Her inclinations were driven to be artistic, which did not suit the political aspects of her father's life. I could let the rough edges show., Yolanda King, 51, Actor and Dr. Kings Daughter, Dies, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/us/17king.html. A flag at The King Center, which King's mother founded in 1968 and where she was a board member, was lowered to half-staff on Wednesday. She became an actress, ran a production company and appeared in numerous films, including "Ghosts of Mississippi," and as Rosa Parks in the 1978 miniseries "King.". Wage growth is slowing. King and Kelly starred in three films together, HBO's "America's Dream" starring Danny Glover and Wesley Snipes, award-winning period film "Odessa," that deals with racial unrest in which King gives a stellar performance as a nanny who lost her son to racial violence, and in Rob Reiner's film "Ghosts of Mississippi" about the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers starring Whoopi Goldberg and Alec Baldwin, King and Kelly played the adult and child versions of Reena Evers. ", "Yolanda never wavered from a commitment to nonviolent social change and justice for all," he said. The children of Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King Yolanda Denise, Martin Luther III, Dexter Scott, and Bernice Albertine have each in their own way worked to carry on their parents' work fighting for racial equality and social justice. Martin Luther King Jr. , Rev. But acting, I could be zany, silly, sometimes the foolish person that I am. November 28, 2007 . This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. King's mother, Coretta Scott King, suffered a stroke before her death from cancer in 2006. An important early memory was that she wanted to go to Funtown, a local amusement park, with the rest of her class, but was barred from doing so due to her race. ", The Rev. A flag at The King Center, which King's mother founded in 1968 and where she was a board member, was lowered to half-staff on Wednesday. accessed ), memorial page for Yolanda Denise King (17 Nov 1955-15 May 2007), Find a Grave Memorial ID 19405381; . She was helping the association raise awareness, especially among blacks, about stroke. We compared notes about having gone to women's colleges and teased each other about the perceived weaknesses of our respective alma maters. Bernice King, Yolanda King and Martin Luther King III. [102] During the fall of 2004 she played Mama in "A Raisin in the Sun" at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts at Cornell University. In the 1990s, she supported a retrial of James Earl Ray and publicly stated that she did not hate him. 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 also voiced her dislike of the assumption that she would behave just like her mother and father, and the difficulty of being perceived as not being someone others could talk to. All rights reserved. Yolanda King, shown here in a 2005 photograph, sought to encourage "personal growth and positive social change." [8] The Kings would have another daughter, almost eight years later, named Bernice (born 1963). "[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. We cannot be satisfied with a few black faces in high places when millions of our people have been locked out." [18] In 1964, upon learning her father would receive the Nobel Peace Prize, she asked her mother what her father was going to do with the money he was receiving in addition to the award. She was a young girl during his famous stay in the Birmingham, Alabama, jail. [93] During a presentation in May 2000, King was asked if the human race would ever become "color blind". [35], In regards to the possibility that her father could have been saved, King said she doubted that her father could have lived much longer given all the stress he had during his tenure as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. Bernice King, Martin Luther King III and Yolanda King participate in a musical tribute to their mother at the new Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. [58] Despite some early opposition to acting that she received during her controversial play in high school, King still tried to get roles and actively tried performing. Jesse Jackson stated that King "lived with a lot of the trauma of our struggle. King was the first national ambassador to the anti-stroke campaign and she helped spread the word about risk factors and warning signs of stroke, Davis said. Yolanda has mostly been portrayed in films that revolve around her parents. After having been a public speaker for over twenty years, Yolanda recalled her talents having "happened very naturally growing up in a house like mine". In January 2004, King referred to her father as a king, but not as one who "sat on a throne, but one who sat in a dark Birmingham jail. [97] King and Elodia Tate co-edited the book Open My Eyes, Open My Soul: Celebrating Our Common Humanity,[98][99] published by McGraw-Hill in 2003. Despite this, King managed to keep up her grades and became involved in high school politics, serving as class president for two years. Steve Klein, a spokesman for the center, says the 51-year-old died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif. A spokesman for the King Center says the family does not know the cause of death but suspects it might have been a heart problem. In high school, she was president of her sophomore and junior classes and vice president of her senior class. She returned to Smith College on January 26, 1989. Klein said the family did not know the cause of death but that relatives think it might have been a heart problem. Yolanda King was the founder and head of Higher Ground Productions, billed as a "gateway for inner peace, unity and global transformation." Legal Statement. All rights reserved. We had cups of tea because it was so frigid that night, and then they were gone. [80] That same year, she also spoke at Indiana University. Showing Editorial results for yolanda king. "[109] She found her mother's personal papers in her home. The event was planned by survivors of the . Martin Luther King Jr.'s eldest child who pursued her father's dream of racial harmony through acting and motivational speaking, has died. Four days later, she and her brothers accompanied their mother to appear at Memphis City Hall. NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates offers a personal note on Yolanda King. King became a human rights activist and actress. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who melded her father's. [4] Despite this, the front porch was damaged and glass broke in the home. She was born two weeks before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public transit bus in Montgomery, Alabama. King aroused controversy in high school for her role in a play. With Elodia Tate, she edited a motivational book emphasizing the importance of diversity. Even in her infancy, Yolanda was faced with the threats her father was given when they extended to his family. Yolanda, King's nine-year-old granddaughter, made headlines just last month with her rousing speech at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington. ATLANTA Yolanda King, the Rev. [22] King flew to Memphis, Tennessee with her brothers and mother and participated in leading a march in Memphis with sanitation workers and civil rights leaders. ", during a celebration that marked what would have been her father's sixty-fourth birthday. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. She was among 187 people arrested during a demonstration by lesbian and gay rights activists. "[100] While in Dallas in March 2004, King related; "It's only in the past half-dozen years or so that I have felt comfortable in my own skin. [95] She, her brother Martin Luther King III and Al Sharpton sang We Shall Overcome in front of "The Sphere", which stood atop the World Trade Center prior to the September 11 attacks.[96]. Staff writer Kevin Moran contributed to this report. Raphael Warnock stated; "She dealt with the difficulty of personal pain and public responsibility and yet she emerged from it all victorious. She ran out of the room, screamed "I don't want to hear it,"[24] and prayed that he would not die. She complimented her mother on her achievements and her mother spoke of her in a positive light, as well. During the play, she changed costume numerous times and adjusted her voice and body language when changing roles. Bernice A. Yolanda King founded and led Higher Ground Productions, billed as a "gateway for inner peace, unity and global transformation." Yolanda King, Actress: King. She was a reserved and quiet person who loved acting. When her father was assassinated on April 4, 1968, the 12-year-old King showed her composure during the public funeral and mourning events. Suzan Johnson Cook was highlighted in an article written by the minister, as she dubbed her deceased longtime friend a "queen whose name was King". The Tragic 2007 Death Of Martin Luther King's Eldest Child, Yolanda King. She wore the mantle of princess, and she wore it with dignity and charm," Lowery said. Share Memory. In the interview with the magazine, she related how people expected her to be "stuck up" and referred to it as one of the "handicaps" of being Martin Luther King's child. For a nation that prides itself on liberty, justice and equality for all, this is totally unacceptable. Flying bug found at Walmart turns out to be rare Jurassic-era insect Assassination of John F. Kennedy and Nobel Peace Prize: 19631964, Enrollment at Spring Street Elementary School and last years with father: 19651968, Immediate life after Smith College: 19761978, King holiday, arrests, and return to Smith College: 19801989, Arizona boycott and James Earl Ray retrial: 19901999, Mother's death, sibling dispute and final months: 20062007. After the move, she founded Higher Ground Productions where she produced and starred in a myriad of films. Pennsylvania police seized gloves, flashlight from home of Idaho murders suspect When asked by The Associated Press at that event how she was dealing with the loss of her mother, she responded: "I connected with her spirit so strongly. King made it clear that while she had not been "endeared" to the institution, she was still "grateful" for her experience. Ms. King was meeting her brother Dexter King at a friends home when she collapsed and died. An alumna of Smith College after graduating in 1976, she was the subject of an essay among the "remarkable women" during a celebration during the college's one hundred and twenty-fifth year[56] and she was a member of the board of directors of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc. (the official national memorial to her father) and was founding Director of the King Center's Cultural Affairs Program. Her mother told her not to, since her father would not want that. Yolanda, Martin, Dexter and Bernice King lost their father. "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. She was involved in a sibling feud that pitted her and her brother Dexter against their brother Martin Luther King III and sister Bernice King for the sale of the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Yolanda King's bio. 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