Dr. King's Niece Wants To Help Memphis Fulfill His Dream...

By Florence M. Howard Courtesy of The Memphis Tri-State Defender

Dr. King’s Niece Envisions New Memphis

Dr. Alveda King

The niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the daughter of Rev. A.D. King, Dr. Alveda C. King has spent the last 39 years telling her father’s story in books and lectures.

Now, she has linked with an Atlanta-based organization to help promote her uncle’s vision of the beloved community – right here in Memphis.
Her father, A.D. King was killed in 1969, one week after he walked her down the aisle to be married. At the height of the civil rights movement, her father’s church in Louisville was bombed as well as their home in Birmingham.

“Daddy was a major strategist of the civil rights movement,” said King, who is the “oldest of our generation,” meaning the grandchildren of Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. and his wife, Alberta.
Last month while in Memphis for the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination, she met members of the Future America Basic Research Institute (FABRI). She discovered that she and the organization’s founder, Dr. Nkosi Ajanaku, both want to see Dr. King’s dream of economic success a reality, starting in Memphis.

That desire is bringing her back to Memphis this week. She will be a panelist for FABRI’s “Future 
Metro Memphis Today – Future Memphis Tomorrow Economic New Knowledge Forum” being held in honor of her uncle on Saturday, May 10, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Labor Center, 485 Beale St.

Event organizers would like her to accept the position of national leader for the initiative to make Memphis a model city “to resurrect the legacy of Dr. King who gave his life for this cause.” The idea is to build the model city using the new psychosocial science of humaculture, founded by Dr. Ajanaku.

Keeping the A.D. King legacy alive

Rev. A.D. King was the younger brother of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When A.D. was killed, wrote Alveda King in her book, “Sons of Thunder,” her grandfather “Daddy” King publicly declared: 

“Both of my sons were murdered for civil rights.”

According to the book jacket, “Sons of Thunder: The King Family Legacy” is the story of the King family - their stormy, God-inspired, romantic, and often adventurous lives. The book explores “provocative” episodes of the civil rights movement through remembrances that Rev. King shared with his daughter.

The oldest of four children born to A.D. and Naomi Barber King, Dr. Alveda King has authored seven books, including two novels. Her writings and lectures ensure that her father’s contributions are not forgotten.

“I told my mother we should do something,” she said. “Who can know it better than we do?”

Dr. King holds a Masters of Arts degree in Business Management from Central Michigan University and says her undergraduate studies in journalism and sociology helped her to become a published author. Also, a minister, singer/songwriter, poet, film producer, music video producer and former college professor, she is the mother of six children, as well as two that were unborn, and she is a grandmother.

An Atlanta resident, Dr. King is founder of the Reverend Doctor A. D. Williams King Foundation and King for America, Inc. According to its Web site, www.kingforamerica.com, King for America is a faith-based organization that aims to enrich people spiritually, socially, intellectually and economically and whose primary issue is “School Choice — the Civil Rights Issue of the Nineties.”
Dr. King also works as director of African American outreach for Gospel of Life, a division of Priests for Life.

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What is ‘humaculture?’

Dr. Nkosi Ajanaku, a research attorney, was born in Tunica and graduated from Manassas High School and the University of Memphis. Now living in Atlanta, he sees the new science of humaculture as a tool for reversing the effects of slavery by dismantling “the culture that produces poverty, crime, racism, hatred and ineffective education.”

“Dr. King said, ‘The only way to get anywhere is that we have to squeeze the slave out of us,’” said Dr. Dayo Adwoa Ajanaku, a forum organizer. “When Dr. King asked us to do this – Dr. Nkosi heard it.”

Humaculture is an interdisciplinary science designed to give each individual tools to identify and eliminate the effects of lingering effects of slavery that are transmitted mostly through language.
The Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Board of Commissioners each have unanimously adopted resolutions embracing the idea of making use of humaculture in the effort to turn Memphis into a model city.

Dr. Nkosi Ajanaku says that part of the problem that African Americans have talking about economic development is their lack of orientation and education about the subject. Growth has been stunted in this area; hence, the forum will help establish a common language for discussion around this important subject.

In addition to Dr. Alveda King, Congressman Steve Cohen and State Rep. Larry Miller are expected to participate in the forum, which is co-sponsored by the AFSCME/AFL-CIO, Memphis Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Business Organized Self Sufficiency.
For more details, call (901) 240-6777 or (901) 385-4943.

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