Alveda King Overcomes Tragedy Through Forgiveness and Faith

Erika Kirk stunned the world when she forgave the man who killed her husband, Charlie, during his recent memorial service. Dr. Alveda King also knows what it is like to offer forgiveness despite experiencing unimaginable tragedy.

When she was 12, her family’s home was firebombed in an attempt to kill her father, the Rev. A.D., King, a prominent civil rights leader. In 1968, her uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated. The following year, her father was found dead in the swimming pool at their home. And in 1974, a gunman killed her grandmother, Alberta King, as she played the organ at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

“We forgave the people who bombed our house,” King told “Metro Voice News.” “When Mama King was killed, my grandfather went to the jail to ask them to forgive the man and not give him the death penalty. My mother forgave those people who killed my dad. I have seen forgiveness, and I have lived it.”

King freely admits she never could have forgiven these people in her own strength. She relies on her faith and stands on the truth of scripture.

“I believe in Mark 11:22,” she said. “Have faith in God, and when you believe, you can pray and have what you say. However, that scripture continues to say that whenever you pray, forgive, so your heavenly father can forgive you. So first have faith in God, then believe and then forgive.”

Faith, love and kindness go along with forgiveness, as I Corinthians 13 teaches.

“When we allow Christ to come into our hearts and give us these characteristics, we are able to forgive when as humans we cannot,” King said. “We need to say, `Holy Spriit, I can’t do this. Please help me.’ I wasn’t taught exactly that way when I was growing up, because I grew up in a traditional Baptist church, which was a little different, but those scriptures were real.”

Prayer unlocks the power to forgive and bring reconciliation.

“We need the divine will of God in our heart to enable us to forgive,” she said. “Remember to pray, because you can’t hate somebody and pray that God will bless them at the same time. Acts 17:26 says that by one blood, God made all people. So we are not separate races – we are brothers and sisters. It is impossible to hate someone while praying for God to bless them.”

This approach has empowered King to carry on the legacy of her famous family.

“I learned those principles from my mother,” she said. “My father was a preacher; his brother, Martin Luther King, was a preacher; Daddy King was a preacher; my grandmother was a worship leader; and on and on. So today, at 75 years of age, I am a gospel evangelist. I talk about Jesus a lot.“

Forgiveness can even during conflicts that have raged for millennia..

“My mom went to Israel around 2023 or 2024 to make a documentary,” King said. “A Palestinian shot a member of her film crew. She got in the middle of the group and started lecturing them — `you have brothers, you have cousins, you have babies. What are you doing?’ The Israelis put their guns down on the ground, picked up my mother’s wheelchair and carried her to safety.”

As a new year approaches, King encourages Christians to follow the example of her, Erika Kirk and others by embracing forgiveness as a way of life – even for people who seem to be uniikeable.

“Some people may not like me, but I love everybody,” she said. “Their mansion might be bigger than mine in heaven, because I don’t know what they ae gong through. So I’m going to treat everybody the same way.”

For more information about Alveda King and her ministry, visit www.alvedaking.com.

–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice