Pretty much every American schoolkid knows the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in the 1960s, one of the most thoroughly documented murders in our country’s history. As a guy who fancies himself a history buff, I was totally stunned to learn recently that his was not the last assassination suffered by the King family.
The civil rights icon was slain while standing on the balcony of a Memphis, Tennessee, motel on April 4, 1968. Just six years later, his beloved mother Alberta Williams King was also assassinated, on June 30, 1974, while playing a church organ in Atlanta.
If you wanted to create a definition of pure hatred, I would say intentionally gunning down a 70-year-old woman playing “The Lord’s Prayer” during a Sunday morning service should rank right up there.
Alberta was the daughter of a Baptist preacher, later married a Baptist preacher, and gave birth to one of the most famous Baptist preachers the world has ever known. In fact, her father Adam Williams, husband Martin Luther King Sr., and both sons were all pastors at the famous Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta over the course of more than 80 years.
Martin Sr., took over the church’s pulpit in 1931 after the death of his father-in-law Adam. Martin Jr., joined his father as co-pastor in 1960, and his younger brother Rev. Alfred King – also known as A.D. – stepped up into the same role after Martin Jr.’s 1968 assassination.
Alberta founded the church choir at Ebenezer, served as its director for 25 years, and played the organ there for four decades. She was also college-educated and a civil rights activist in her community. Alberta quite literally grew up in Ebenezer Baptist Church and devoted her life to that institution, as well as her family.
And it was in this sanctuary where she was ultimately shot to death.
Alberta was murdered by Marcus Wayne Chenault on Chenault’s 23rd birthday. A five-foot-three baby-faced Black man, the killer actually looks closer to 14 in photos taken at the time. He had intended to shoot Martin Sr. that morning, but the reverend happened to be preaching elsewhere.
So instead, as Alberta finished playing the keys to the Lord’s Prayer, Chenault rose from his pew and started shouting and firing two handguns he had smuggled into the church. He intentionally targeted Alberta, according to witnesses, killing both her and a church deacon, Edward Boykin. A third person was also wounded. Like her son, Alberta died from a gunshot wound to the head.
The backdrop of this scene resonates with me a little, as my old man preached for more than 40 years as an ordained Methodist minister, and my mom was often at the front of the church as well, either singing with the choir or playing the organ. While violent attacks inside churches aren’t so rare these days, I still can’t imagine how horrific these murders must have been.
Chenault, who was later diagnosed as a deluded schizophrenic, told investigators “all Christians are my enemies,” and particularly accused Black ministers of causing the downfall of Black Americans. He reportedly embraced the teachings of the Black Hebrew Israelites, which maintains that Black Americans are descended from the ancient Israelites. He originally planned to murder Jesse Jackson in Chicago before heading to Atlanta instead.
As mentioned, I was unaware of this event until the Rev. Sen. Raphael Warnock discussed it during a recent TV interview. Warnock has been the senior p[astor at Ebenezer Baptist Church for the past 20 years, and is only the fifth individual to hold this position in the congregation’s nearly 140-year history. He’s also a U.S. senator representing the state of Georgia.
The point of Warnock’s story was the response of Alberta’s husband – and Martin Jr.’s father – to the violence that so tragically impacted his family. (It’s also worth noting the Kings’ youngest child Alfred – the one who took over his brother’s role as co-pastor of Ebenezer – died from drowning in his own pool just a year after Martin’s assassination.)
“I will never let any man pull me down so low as to hate him,” Martin Sr. said after his wife’s senseless murder, according to Warnock. “Hate is too heavy a burden to bear.”
In fact, the elderly pastor met with Alberta’s youthful killer in jail, and publicly forgave him. This kind of beatific grace enabled the King family and others to peacefully overcome many years of hate and violence, and achieve a measure of equality unimaginable a century ago.
Chenault’s attorneys pleaded insanity, but he was sentenced to death by electric chair. Eventually this ruling was commuted to life in prison, partly due to the King family’s opposition to the death penalty. Chenault died of natural causes in 1995.
Martin Sr., known to many as “Daddy King,” passed away at the age of 84, 10 years after his wife’s murder. In his obituary, the New York Times cited a comment he made in 1976:
”I do not hate the man who took the life of my dead son. I am not going to hate the young man who came and killed my wife. I am every man’s brother. I’m going on with my job.”
I don’t know if I could ever have that kind of inner strength, but the King family gave us a pretty remarkable blueprint we should consider during these current turbulent times.
D. Allan Kerr is an ex-dockworker, former newspaperman and Navy veteran living in Kittery, Maine.
