Alveda King

Alveda Celeste King (born January 22, 1951 ) is an American activist, author, and former state representative for the 28th District in the Georgia House of Representatives.

She is a niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and daughter of civil rights activist Alfred Daniel King and his wife, Naomi Barber King. She is a Fox News Channel contributor. She once served as a senior fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, a conservative Washington, D.C. think tank. She is a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives and the founder of Alveda King Ministries.

Childhood and family Alveda King was born Alveda Celeste King on January 22, 1951, in Atlanta, Georgia. She was the first of five children of Alfred Daniel King, the younger brother of Martin Luther King Jr., and his wife Naomi (Barber) King. King says her mother wanted to abort her so she could continue college, but her grandfather was able to persuade her to keep her child. When she was 12, her father became a leader of the Birmingham campaign while serving as pastor at the First Baptist Church of Ensley in Ensley near Birmingham, Alabama. Later that same year, King's house was bombed by opponents to the civil rights movement.

In 1969, her father, A. D. King, was found dead in the pool at his home. The cause of death was listed as an accidental drowning.

Martin Luther King Sr. wrote in his autobiography, "Alveda had been up the night before, she said, talking with her father and watching a television movie with him. He'd seemed unusually quiet... and not very interested in the film. But he had wanted to stay up and Alveda left him sitting in an easy chair, staring at the TV, when she went off to bed.... I had questions about A. D.'s death, and I still have them now. He was a good swimmer. Why did he drown? I don't know—I don't know that we will ever know what happened."

Education King studied journalism and sociology as an undergraduate and received a Master of Arts degree in business management from Central Michigan University. She received an honorary doctorate from Saint Anselm College.

Public office From 1979 to 1982, King represented the 28th District in the Georgia House of Representatives. The district included Fulton County, and King served as a Democrat.

In 1984 King ran for the seat of Georgia's 5th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, challenging incumbent Representative Wyche Fowler. Hosea Williams was also a challenger in the primary.

Fowler defeated both King and Williams in the primary. It was the last time she ran for elected office. Since then, she has publicly stated "I've been a Democrat, and I've been a Republican. I've even considered being an independent. Today, I'm just a Christian."

King is a member of the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Commission, having been nominated to the position by President Donald Trump in 2018.

In January 2026 King testified before the House Oversight Committee's "Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets" on the declassification of government records related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Presidential endorsements

In 1984, King supported the Reverend Jesse Jackson for president. She co-founded Women for Cain.

King voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

For the 2020 presidential election, King was an advisory board member of Black Voices for Trump.

Views and activism Angela D. Dillard classifies King as among the most prominent black figures on the American religious right.

King is an anti-abortion activist. She had two abortions before changing her views following the birth of one of her children and her becoming a born-again Christian in 1983. King frames the issue as one of racial discrimination; she has referred to abortion as "womb-lynching" King is director of the activist group Civil Rights for the Unborn and is director of Priests for Life's African American outreach.

King spoke at Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial in August 2010. In her speech, she expressed hope that "white privilege will become human privilege and that America will soon repent of the sin of racism and return itself to honor."

King has spoken out against same-sex marriage. She has appeared in film and television as both Alveda King and Alveda King Beal. and co-executive-produced Pray for America (2015).

King portrayed Gaylee's mother in "Fifteen Forever" season 2, episode 19 of In the Heat of the Night, original air date April 25, 1989.