Yolanda King learned about racial discrimination at 3 or 4 when she was barred from an amusement park. Al Sharpton, a black political leader, said he expressed his condolences to her brother Martin Luther King III on Wednesday. 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." ATLANTA - Yolanda King, the Rev. He would be killed a scant three months later by an assassin's bullet. 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. CDC warns drug-resistant stomach bug a "serious public health threat" Stepping into Tomorrow led to the formation of Nucleus in the 1980s, a theater company which King and Shabazz founded. King served as a spokesperson for her mother during the illness that would eventually lead to her death. She proceeded to read his books, and started to believe that her father had been correct all along. 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". [25] Her memories of her father prompted her to state that he "believed we were all divine. She wrote "Yolanda proved daily that it was possible to smile while wreathed in sadness. Death of Yolanda King. We must cease our premature celebration [about civil rights already achieved] and get back to the struggle. It seems we've stood still and in many ways gone backward since Martin Luther King Jr. was alive. 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. [130] During a 2009 reunion at her alma mater Smith College, a walk was done in her memory by fellow alumnae.[131]. At that time, she was also called by Andrea Young, whose own father had insisted that she should. 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. 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. [104] She was hospitalized on August 16, 2005,[105] and was set to come home as well. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who melded her father's. } None of them have children, and there will be no third generation of Kings to carry on Martin Luther King's legacy. [44] The practice of going to her father's grave on the anniversary of either his birth or assassination became an annual ritual for the King family to mourn his death. ", The Rev. She was also on the board of the King Center. Her death came less than a year and a half after her mother, Coretta Scott King, died in January 2006. ATLANTA Yolanda Denise King, the Rev. 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." There, she gave a speech and made references to her past difficult experiences when first coming to the college. She stroked her youngest child, Bernice, as the preschooler raised sad eyes to her mother and looked around in wonder at all the strangers in the church that had been home to three generations of Kings. Sign In . Martin Luther King Jr., died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 51. 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). With Yolanda King, she also founded a group named Nucleus, Inc. in 1977. "[73] At this point in her life, King also served as director of cultural affairs for the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change and was tasked with raising and directing funds for all artistic events.[74]. 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. We compared notes about having gone to women's colleges and teased each other about the perceived weaknesses of our respective alma maters. Legal Statement. Her death comes little more than a year after the death of her mother, Coretta Scott King. King and Dexter were in favor of sale, but their other siblings were not. I have chosen to continue to promote 'we're one, the oneness of us, and shine the spotlight,' as my father did. Ms. King was 12 on April 4, 1968, when she heard a news bulletin on television saying her father had been assassinated in Memphis. Remember people with biographies & photos. She founded a production company called Higher Ground Productions. [68], She celebrated her father's holiday on January 16, 1986, and attended a breakfast in Chicago with Mayor Harold Washington. Yolanda Denise King, 51, the eldest daughter of the late civil rights leader Rev. 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. Mrs. King said the children attended because they wanted to. Yolanda was an advocate for racial and social justice, workers' rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, and general nonviolence. This, and other experiences, prompted a 7-year-old Yolanda to tell her friends (via Stanford), "Look, all I want is to just be treated like a normal child.". Share Memory. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who melded her fathers message of racial equality and nonviolence with her own calling as an actor and a motivational speaker, died on Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 51. Numerous dignitaries from around the world crowded into the dark wood pews at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church. 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. She was an actress and writer, known for King (1978), JAG (1995) and Death of a Prophet (1981). Yolanda King is survived by her sister, the Rev. [63], When presenting herself in 1980 to the GSA staff members, she stated: "Jim Crow [segregation] is dead, but his sophisticated cousin James Crow, Esq., is very much alive. FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2006, file photo, from left, the children of the Rev. Yolanda at that same ceremony used her craft as an actress to deliver a tribute to her parents, performing a series of skits telling stories including a girl's first ride on a desegregated bus and a college student's recollection of the 1963 desegregation of Birmingham, Ala. Her childhood experience was greatly influenced by her father's highly public activism. The two were the same age. He had come up for the festivities, and he had two friends with him. [81] In October, King gave support for a Cabrini-Green family that wants to escape the violence, and a fundraiser for their cause. [108] After Coretta died on January 30, 2006, Yolanda, like her siblings, attended her funeral. [6] While her mother liked her name, her father had reservations about naming her "Yolanda", due to the possibility that the name would be mispronounced. Joseph Lowery, one of her father's close aides in the civil rights movement. "[128] January 2008's issue of Ebony, her relationship with Rev. King outlived her mother by only 16 months, succumbing to complications related to a chronic heart condition on May 15, 2007. Her death came less than a year and a half after her mother, Coretta Scott King, died in January 2006. [71] Former Mayor Andrew Young, a lieutenant of her father's who has remained close to the family, said Yolanda King had just spoken at an event for the American Heart Association. I dream things that never were and say why not?". In high school, she was president of her sophomore and junior classes and vice president of her senior class. Bernice King, Yolanda King and Martin Luther King III. Her family has speculated that her death was caused by a heart condition. 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. But after finishing her sophomore year and returning home so she could work over the summer, her grandmother Alberta Williams King was killed on June 30, 1974. "[37] King openly stated years later that she did not hate James Earl Ray.[38]. Born on Nov. 17, 1955, in Montgomery, Ala., Yolanda Denise King was just an infant when her home was bombed amid the turbulent civil rights era. 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. 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. "We must keep reaching across the table and, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, feed each other," said Yolanda, urging those who honor the Kings' work to question their own beliefs on prejudice and be a personal force for peace and love. [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. [24] In February 1982, King was a speaker during the centennial of Anne Spencer's birth. "[87] In July 1994, after seeing some photographs of her father prior to his death, Yolanda lamented that "this [had] brought back a lot of memories. She was 51.. Yolanda and Martin III sat nearby, numb with sadness. People Photos Purpose. 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. [32] After the funeral, she was visited by classmates from Spring Street Middle School with flowers and cards. I am in direct contact with her spirit, and that has given me so much peace and so much strength." "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 a reserved and quiet person who loved acting. [31], King was visited by Mrs. Kennedy before her father's funeral. The King Center in Atlanta set up to preserve the legacy of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King says his oldest child, Yolanda Denise King, has died. [47] In response to her role in the play and her own response to the role, a man wrote to Jet predicting that she would marry a white person before she was eighteen. Yolanda King is seen in a 2006 file photo. [42] Of the King children, Yolanda was the only one to attend Grady High School, as her siblings would go to different high schools following her graduation. Her father also addressed the issue himself. Heart Attack caused Yolanda King's death in 2007. 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. From left: Dexter King, the Rev. A few days later, we were glued to the television as we watched his funeral. hide caption, Yolanda King, shown here in a 2005 photograph, sought to encourage "personal growth and positive social change.". It's often hard for young people to understand the fear and terror so many people felt and how bold they were to get involved in the marches. Her decision in 1971 to play a prostitute in a school production of Bill Manhoffs Owl and the Pussycat, which involved kissing a white man, scandalized the white and black communities. "Yolanda was lovely. Yolanda King was the founder and head of Higher Ground Productions, billed as a "gateway for inner peace, unity and global transformation." Yolanda died due to a chronic heart condition in 2007. 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.". [5] She kept her father busy when walking on their home's floors. There, in my living room, shaking off snow and laughing, were the kids in the picture two of them, anyway. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. 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. King became a human rights activist and actress. Her deepest memories were the love of her father, who taught her to swim and playfully pummeled her but never spanked her. Ms. Kings consistent goal was to infect her work, including her films, with her familys deeper purposes. [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]. King made it clear that while she had not been "endeared" to the institution, she was still "grateful" for her experience. [120] She also advocated for her father's holiday to be used as a day for helping others, and also expressed dissatisfaction on the basis of people relaxing on his day. She asked her mother at this time, if she should hate the man who killed her father. As she said during an interview, "I prefer Yoki. Market data provided by Factset. May 16, 2007 / 5:32 AM On April 8, 1988, King and Shabazz were honored by Los Angeles County supervisors for their "unifying" performance and message on stage at the Los Angeles Theater Center the previous night. Many former classmates of both Grady High School and Smith College attended to remember her. Yolanda Denise King, daughter and eldest child of the Rev. When she replied "Your father is going to jail so that you can go to Funtown." "We must keep reaching across the table and, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, feed each other," King said. "[109] She found her mother's personal papers in her home. 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