Legacy of a King

JBU welcomes evangelist for lecture series

Sit down with Alveda King and ask her who she is, and she doesn’t hesitate. Of course, she’s had 68 years to perfect her answer.

First, she says, she’s an evangelist and a Christian. Second, she’s a civil rights leader. And third, she is the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with whom she marched for freedom, equality and fair housing in the 1960s.

But when King speaks to an audience like the one Feb. 21 for the Barnett Civic Leadership Series at John Brown University, she has one message. “Every nation, every tongue and every tribe,” she says, has a contribution to make. “But notice I don’t say ‘race.’ We are one race — the human race. I want to ask people to stop dividing themselves as different races and instead see the human race.”

And she wants all of those people, whatever their ethnicity, to remember that they are the children of God.

“For God so loved the world,” she quotes, “that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Born in Atlanta, King was one of five children of the Rev. A.D. King — Martin’s brother — and his wife, Naomi Barber King.

“The men in my life were strong Christians and pastors, and the women — in that time — were strong supporters,” she says. “Being born into a Christian family shaped who I am today.”

But King didn’t take what might have been considered a traditional path for a woman. She pushed back against the erroneous history books she encountered at Georgia State University — refusing to put the “wrong” answers on tests, even though it meant earning a “D” in the class. She was jailed for her role in a fair housing march. She served in the Georgia House of Representatives and lost a run for the U.S. Congress. She dabbled in many other religions, studying the Koran and with the Black Hebrew [Israelites].

It wasn’t until 1983, she says, that she had “a direct encounter” with Jesus that set the course for the rest of her life. She was in a new college teaching position, she recalls, and was asked about her faith. Her first answer was the one she learned in Sunday school, she says. Her second answer was her intellectual philosophy. Her third answer was “I think He is God. I know He IS God.”

“And everything I was worshiping — fame, fortune and money — fell away from me,” she says. “It all mattered less to me that day, in that moment.”

King has continued her work in the entertainment industry, most recently as an executive producer on a film titled “Roe V. Wade: The Untold Story”; she is the author of half a dozen books; she was appointed by the president to serve on the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Commission in 2018; and she is the director of Civil Rights for the Unborn, the African American Outreach for Priests for Life and the African American Outreach for Gospel of Life Ministries. She is also a voice for the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, sharing her testimony of the two abortions she had before she adopted a pro-life stance.

Any of those topics, in varying degrees of controversy, might come up any time she speaks, King says, but she returns again and again to her basic philosophy, adapted from words spoken by her uncle: “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

“The main divider right now is the skin color issue,” she opines. “We thought we were separate races, but we’re one human race, one blood; we all bleed the same. I believe if we share that, if we begin to see ourselves as the human race, we’ll stop creating crimes against humanity and accept the universal agape love of God. Then we can begin to love each other and forgive each other.”

“Given her political career, her ministerial experience and her identity as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, Alveda King brings a unique perspective to the topics of civil rights, women’s rights, nonviolent conflict resolutions and racial reconciliation,” says Tracy Balzer, JBU director of Christian Formation.

The Ray and Laurine Barnett Civic Leadership Series, established in 2016,

brings a speaker to JBU each academic year to focus on Christian leadership and the intersection of faith and public service. Past speakers include Shapri LoMaglio, the vice president for government relations and executive

programs at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities; former Gov. Mike Huckabee; and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

Courtesy Photo Asked what she thinks about when she thinks about her father, the Rev. A.D. King, and her uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Alveda King says: “They both died when they were 39 years old — they were both so young. They were both wonderful fathers, wonderful men. Were they perfect? Absolutely not. But they were full of love and life and quick to forgive.”