Naomi King

Naomi Ruth Barber King (born November 17, 1931 in Dothan, Houston County; died March 7, 2024) was the widow of minister and Civil Rights activist Alfred Daniel King.

Naomi moved with her mother, Bessie Barber, to Atlanta, Georgia in the mid 1940s. Naomi worked part-time as a fashion model while at Booker T. Washington High School, and was active at Ebenezer Baptist Church, then led by Martin Luther King Sr. She met Reverend King's youngest son Alfred at a YMCA dance. She graduated in 1949, married King on June 17, 1950, and entered Spelman College that fall. She was forced to withdraw from classes when she became pregnant with her daughter, Alveda, in 1951. She became a full-time wife and mother, serving as "First Lady" at her husband's pastorates, primarily supporting music and women's programs. She later studied interior design at the University of Alabama.

The family shared rooms in the 2-story King family home on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, and welcomed four more children by 1960. In 1961 they moved to Birmingham, as A. D. King accepted the leadership of First Baptist Church of Ensley, just as the Civil Rights Movement was gearing up for a confrontation with Bull Connor.

A. D. and Naomi King were active in the work of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which planned and carried out the Birmingham Campaign in the spring of 1963. Their home at 721 12th Street Ensley was damaged by a pair of bombs that exploded minutes apart on May 11, 1963. On March 21, 1965 another bomb with 50 sticks of dynamite was found at the house, but did not go off.

Later that year, A. D. King accepted the pastorate of Zion Baptist Church in West Louisville, Kentucky and he founded the Kentucky Christian Leadership Conference there, focusing on fair housing. He coordinated with his brother's SCLC and was engaged in the Poor People's Campaign. He was with his brother when Martin Luther King was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. King's office on the side of Zion Baptist Church was damaged in a bombing in August of that year.

A. D. King was found dead in the family's swimming pool in July 1969 while Naomi and the children were vacationing in the Bahamas. His death was ruled to have been caused by accident, but Naomi believed that he had been murdered.

In 2008 she established the A. D. King Foundation in South Fulton to empower youth and women, and to push for social change by non-violent means. That organization produced a 2022 documentary film about her life entitled "The Butterfly Queen: From Tragedy to Peace."

King died in 2024. She was survived by two of her five children, along with 10 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Her funeral services were held at Ebenezer Baptist Church and she was buried alongside her family at South View Cemetery.

Publications

• King, Naomi Ruth Barber (2014) A. D. and M. L. King: Two Brothers Who Dared to Dream. AuthorHouse ISBN 9781496919168

References

• Suggs, Ernie (March 7, 2024) "Naomi Ruth Barber King, AD King’s widow and last of MLK’s generation, dead at 92." Atlanta Journal-Constitution

External links

• About Naomi at adkingfoundation.com