7. His Mother Was Also Murdered... By A Man Who Declared "All Christians Are My Enemies"
Martin Luther King Jr was not the only member of his family to be murdered - his mother, Alberta Williams King (pictured above, left), was killed six years after him at the age of 69. After entering the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on June 30, 1974, a 23-year-old African-American man named Marcus Wayne Chenault shot and killed Alberta King while she sat playing the organ. Explaining his decision to shoot her, Chenault said it was because "all Christians are my enemies" - and he believed African-American ministers were a menace to black people. Chenault even stated that his original target was going to be Martin Luther King Jr. Another tragedy to befall the King family was when Martin Luther King Jr's youngest brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King I, drowned in his own pool in 1969.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
