James_Albert_King

James Albert King

James Albert King

American sharecropper, grandfather of Martin Luther King Jr.

James Albert King (December 1864 – November 17, 1933) was the father of Martin Luther King Sr. and paternal grandfather of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., A. D. King, and Christine King Farris.

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Early life

James Albert King was born in 1864 to an Irish American father Nathan King, and Malinde, a freed African American slave.[1] Nathan King has been variously recorded to have been born in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Ireland.[2] In 2010, DNA testing on James's great-grandson, Martin III by 23andMe confirmed that the King's family Y-chromosome lineage originated from Ireland.[3] King married Delia Linsey (1875–1924) in 1895, and they both worked as sharecroppers, in Henry County and Clayton County in Georgia, and then Stockbridge, Georgia where they settled and where their son, Martin Luther King Sr. was born in 1899.

Later life

King struggled with alcoholism, and disapproved of his son and wife attending church. When his son Martin became involved in an altercation with a white property owner the family went into hiding for a period. King died in 1933.[4][5]

References

  1. [1]
    King (2014), p. 69
  2. [2]
    Jonathan DeBurca Butler, Irish Examiner, We had a dream ... he’s one of us
  3. [3]
    Nelson (2016) pp. 160-1 "Kittles informed King that his Y-chromosome DNA analysis traced to Ireland and his MTDNA analysis associated him with the Mende."
  4. [4]
    Clayborne Carson, Ralph Luker & Penny Russell, eds., The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr. Volume I: Called to Serve, January 1929–June 1951, University of California Press, 1992
  5. [5]
    Martin Luther King Sr., Daddy King: An Autobiography, New York: William Morrow & Co., 1980.

Further reading

  • King, Alveda (2014). King Rules: Ten Truths for You, Your Family, and Our Nation to Prosper. Thomas Nelson. ISBN 1400205018.
  • Nelson, Alondra (2016). The Social Life of DNA. ISBN 978-0-8070-2718-9.



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