Alberta Williams King
This past Sunday was Mother’s Day. For many of us it was a time to honor the lives and legacies of the person who gave birth to us and/or provided a foundation of love for our lives. Yet it is easy to forget or neglect the importance of the mothers of famous people such as Martin Luther King, Jr. We tend to think of him as the most famous Civil Rights leader in our nation’s history whose story began with the Montgomery AL bus boycott of 1955-56. Although he was a young man of 26 at the beginning of that historic campaign, the foundation of faith and love that prepared him for his place in history began with the nurture and example of his mother Alberta Williams King. In 1894 her father became the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and she was a lifelong member and leader in that famous church. Alberta’s husband, Martin Luther King, Sr was an assistant pastor there under the leadership of Alberta’s father and later became senior pastor in 1931. Ebenezer Baptist was the home church of Martin Luther King, Jr. for most of the years in which he led the Civil Rights Movement. Yet even more important than Mrs. King’s roots in Ebenezer Baptist Church was her example of connecting her Christian faith with her commitment to racial justice. She was an active member of the NAACP before her famous son was born. She nurtured her three children in the love of Jesus and the equality of all people as children of God despite the oppression of Jim Crow racial segregation in that era. Even after Martin Luther King, Jr. became an internationally known Civil Rights leader, he contacted his mother on almost a daily basis for her loving guidance and support.
Alberta King suffered the tragedy of losing her son when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. In the face of that horrific loss, she continued to live out her commitment to God’s love and racial justice in her church as organist and choir director. Sadly on June 30, 1974 she was shot to death in her church while playing the organ. The video posted below provides a glimpse into the life of this remarkable woman and mother. Although her life was cut short, her legacy of faith, love, and justice lives on through the gift she gave to the world by providing the foundation for Martin Luther King, Jr.