Does Martin Luther King Junior's Life Affect His Children's Lives?

Was Dr. Martin Luther King Junior's children affected by his life before and after his death? Were his children considered famous or just more people in a crowd? Did they remember their father or did they loose their memory of him? Where the children discriminated? Questions to answer, reasons to be found, that's what this paper is all about, answers. The people to answer these questions the best are the King children themselves. We will be focusing on Martin Luther King Junior, Yolanda King, Martin Luther King the third, Dexter Scott King, and Reverend Bernice Albertine King. All four children have followed their father's footsteps as civil rights activists, although their pet issues and opinions differ. The children lived though life as any other child would want to, or did they?

Martin Luther King Junior was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was christened as Michael Luther King Junior, but later has his name changed to Martin Luther King Junior. His father and maternal grandfather are Baptist preachers with histories of civil rights activity. His great grandfather was also a preacher. King is deeply attached to his close-knit family, that on the day that his grandmother dies he jumped in despair from a second-floor window of his home, but lands unhurt. As a boy he experiences the racial discrimination of the time. On one occasion he and his schoolteacher are ordered to give up their seats to white passengers during a lengthy bus ride. "When we didn't move right away, the driver started cursing us out and calling us black sons of bitches. I decided not to move at all, but my teacher pointed out that we must obey the law. So we got up and stood in the aisle the whole 90 miles to Atlanta. It was a night I'll never forget. I don't think I have ever been so deeply angry in my life" (Marin Luther Kings, Jr. 107). When Martin Luther King Junior was 34, he made a speech, a speech that would go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation, at the March on Washington. During the speech, Martin Luther King Junior said "...I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 23-24). This says that during his life, he saw that his children where discriminated. "I hear his speeches all the time," says Yolanda," and all the buildings and streets named after him. I've learned to separate Martin Luther King Jr., from Daddy. They're two different people." Martin Luther King Junior, he was a husband, a preacher-and the preeminent leader of a movement that continues to transform America and the world. Marin Luther King, Jr., was one of the twentieth century's most influential men and lived one of its most extraordinary lives.

Yolanda Denise King was born on November 17, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. When Yolanda was 2-month-old, she was home alone with her mother on January 30, 1956. On this date, a bomb was hurled at the family's house in Montgomery. With Martin away, Coretta soothed the angry blacks who descended on their house, itching to strike back. On the night her father died, Coretta Scott King left the airport and returned home. When she arrived, Dexter and Bernice were in bed, but Yolanda was still up. Yolanda told her mother, that she was not going to cry because her father was not "really" dead. She said that she was going to "see him in heaven." As a child, she attended public and private schools, like her siblings, but when she went to college, she attended Smith College. Threw the years after her father's death, they all have been in therapy, according to Yolanda. Yolanda, the only one who moved from Atlanta, remembers back when she used to sneak smokes as a teenager (not too young, she says with a laugh: "After all, I was a preacher's daughter") and Dexter caught her out. "I would have told on you" confesses Martin111. Dexter took a different tack. "I cut a deal with you, Yolanda," he remembers. "I wouldn't tell, as long as you would drive me around." Yolanda, who is now 50 years old, is an actress, working often with Malcolm X's daughter, Attallah Shabazz. "Most people spend their life trying to be special," says Yolanda, "I spen[t] my time trying to be like everyone else."

Martin Luther King III was born on October 23, 1957 in Montgomery, Alabama. When Martin Luther King III was young, he had a nickname. They called him "Marty." During the difficult summer of 1996, Martin and Coretta took time out to travel to Jackson, Mississippi, to help in the city's struggle for equality. In blistering heat, the marchers-including the kings and their two oldest children, Yolanda, and Marty- walked to the state house as a band played "When the Saints Go Marching In." As a child, he attended public and private schools just like the rest of his brothers and sisters. For college, he followed his father at the historically black colleges of Atlanta. Marin Luther King III, now at the age of 48, leads the Southern Leadership Conference. Martin III also recently took over his father's old organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, or SCLC, which he has wanted since the King years. Marty lives with his mother in Atlanta and an Atlanta police officer accompanies them when she appears in public. "Everyone imposes their idea of what it must be like," says Martin Luther King III, "I didn't want special treatment, and I didn't want to be put in the position of having to lead until I was ready to."

Dexter Scott was born on January 30, 1961 in Atlanta, Georgia. As a child, he attended public and private schools just like the rest of his brothers and sisters. Dexter, the younger son, was named after his father's first