Christine King Farris, sister of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., smiles as President Barack Obama is sworn in on her brother's bible (Reuters)
...Christine King Farris (click here) discusses the Klu Klux Klan presence in Georgia and major issues affecting the African American community, which included desegregation and voting rights. Her father, Martin, Sr., was an outspoken man who was very active in the community, working with voters' registration and to get equal pay for black educators in Atlanta. These issues were discussed extensively over dinner, and the children were encouraged to participate, which made them socially conscious at a young age. Farris' first experience with tragedy came with the death of her maternal grandmother, who died of a stroke while visiting another church. She describes the family's sorrow and her brother Alfred's guilt caused by his decision not to attend church. Farris talks about her parents' colleges and the assumption that the children in the family would attend Morehouse College and Spelman College like their parents.
Christine King Farris discusses her parents' home on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia, and her father's purchase of a home at 193 Boulevard after her grandmother's death. The neighborhood in which her family lived was an African American community with its own banks, shops and restaurants. Farris describes her father's sermons and her brother's decision to pursue ministry during his freshman year at Morehouse College. Farris and Martin, Jr. attended Atlanta University Laboratory School until it closed, after which they attended Booker T. Washington High School. After graduating from Spelman, Farris attended Columbia University for graduate school and Martin, Jr. attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pennsylvania. She discusses her family's relationship with Dr. Benjamin Mays, who encouraged her brother to continue pursuing activism, and describes the dangers her brother faced while traveling through the South during the Civil Rights Movement....
...Christine King Farris discusses her family's pets, including a monkey and a deer. She talks about her grandmother's death and her brother Martin, Jr.'s grief and guilt. Farris describes the various scarves that women wore when she was a child, and tells the story of her brothers taking her grandmother's fox head stole, and using it to frighten neighbors. Farris talks about the facilities built in honor of her brother, Martin Luther King, Jr., and her work to properly entomb him after his assassination. This required three separate moves due to hateful vandalism and violence against his grave site. Martin's body was permanently placed on the grounds of the Martin Luther King Center. Farris discusses her brother's achievements, and believes that he would be humbled by the number of monuments and facilities built in his honor.
