King’s niece: Own dream

By Amelia A. Pridemore
Register-Herald Reporter

September 30, 2006 11:23 pm

— In 1963, Dr. Alveda King’s uncle shouted the famous civil rights rallying cry, “I have a dream.”
Forty-three years later, King shared her own dream in Beckley — that abortion in America will come to an end.
King, author of “Sons of Thunder: The King Family Legacy” and a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives, addressed the West Virginians for Life state convention Saturday morning at the Church of God Family Worship Center. She is the niece of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the daughter of his brother A.D. King, who died in 1969, one year after her uncle was shot in Memphis, Tenn.
A.D. King, according to the Web site for the Atlanta-based King for America organization his daughter founded, was credited with organizing civil rights activities in Birmingham, Ala., and Louisville, Ky. Homes he had in both cities were bombed during the heat of those struggles.
“‘I Have a Dream’ is in my genes, you know?” Alveda King said Saturday. “It is in our hearts and in our lives. So is the word of God.”
King said in 1973 the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion was handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court, and at that time, she believed the country had a quiet, sleepy attitude, and it pushed God away. However, she believes the country is waking up.
“Roe v. Wade will come down — it will happen,” she said.
“Martin Luther King Jr. said the Negro cannot win if he is willing to sacrifice the lives of his own children for his comfort and safety. ... Nobody can win if we sacrifice our children for our own personal comfort and safety.”
As a younger woman, King had two abortions, one she said was performed with her consent and one without.
“I’ve wondered if it was a boy or a girl. Did it hurt the baby?” she asked.
Until she became a born-again Christian in 1983, King said she considered herself pro-choice. Sometime in the late 1970s, she became pregnant again. At that time, she again considered abortion, but the child’s father and King’s grandfather were vehemently against it. She did not have the abortion, and that child will be 30 years old in January.
“I have six living children, two aborted and one miscarried,” she said.
In 1983, King made the decision to live for Jesus Christ and, she said, pursue the truth. When she taught law classes in college, she proposed this question to her students: If a woman wants an abortion, where is the lawyer for the child? Some students protested this teaching, but she found that other young people believed they were not being presented this argument.
As a woman who has had an abortion herself, King stressed to the audience that forgiveness is just as important in the pro-life movement. Many people — women and men alike — now regret past decisions to either have abortions or pressure a woman into having one.
“If you have never had an abortion, praise God, but be a good friend to someone who did,” she said.
King’s birthday is Jan. 22, the day the Roe v. Wade decision was handed down. She hopes that one day she is not reminded of that decision on her birthday.
As of now, women can decide whether to terminate a pregnancy. King urged them, regardless of the circumstances, to not choose abortion. She said she was speaking from the experiences of a woman who was traumatized from abortions who, at the time, did not know what would happen to her afterward.
“Choose life,” she said. “Life is too precious to be taken for granted.”
— E-mail:
apridemore@register-herald.com

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