• Listen to this segment

GUEST: Alexander Robinson, Executive Director/CEO National Black Justice Coalition

This past Tuesday, Yolanda King, the eldest daughter of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, died at the age of 51 in Santa Monica. The King family did not know the cause of her death but relatives think it may have been a heart problem. A public memorial for King is planned for next Thursday at the Ebenezer Baptist Church Horizons Sanctuary in Atlanta, Georgia. Yolanda King’s death comes less than a year after the passing of her mother Coretta. Born to into the household of the most prominent American civil rights activists, Yolanda King was just two weeks old when Rosa Parks refused to move from her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama. She was only twelve when her father was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. The Reverend Jesse Jackson said of King that “she lived with a lot of the trauma of our struggle. The movement was in her DNA.” Yolanda King earned a master’s degree in Theater from New York University and went on to portray Rosa Parks in a miniseries while also appearing in films such as “Ghosts of Mississippi.” She founded the company, “Higher Ground Productions” which is “committed to celebrating diversity and embracing unity.” She was a prominent activist for the civil rights of all people, especially the LGBT community.