Dr. Alveda King and Her Family’s Legacy

SPEAKER 03 : 0:00

Welcome everyone to Family Talk. It’s a ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute supported by listeners just like you. I’m Dr. James Dobson and I’m thrilled that you’ve joined us.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:20

Well, welcome to Family Talk, the broadcast division of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. I’m Roger Marsh, and today, this day after Christmas, we’re going to do something a little bit different. I’m stepping out from behind the announcer’s microphone and sliding into the co-host’s seat. And we’re about to hear a broadcast that was recorded at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s the largest assembly of Christian communicators in the world. And I’m thrilled to announce that my guest for today’s program is Dr. Alveda King. She is the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the daughter of Reverend A.D. King, both giants of the civil rights movement. Today, Dr. King carries on her family’s legacy of service as an evangelist, author, and passionate pro-life advocate. She’s the founder of Speak for Life, which empowers advocates for the unborn, and also leads Alveda King Ministries. Well, Dr. King, it is an honor to have you here on Family Talk. And before we begin, please know that Dr. Dobson and his wife, Shirley, have asked me to send their warmest regards.

SPEAKER 03 : 1:19

Hi, Roger, and hello to all the listeners. And it’s wonderful to greet you in the name of Jesus. And may God bless us as we speak and hear and to use everything that God gives us in a fruitful way.

SPEAKER 01 : 1:32

Amen. Amen to that. Many of our listeners, of course, are familiar with your family. They may not be familiar with your personal story. Let’s talk about that. I mean, the fact that you grew up in the family that you grew up in, I mean, that’s enough of a legacy in and of itself. But if you can give us the short version of that. for those who don’t know.

SPEAKER 03 : 1:49

If I can do this first, legacy, family is so important to me. And of course, I was born into the same family that birthed to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And I want to talk about that. But I want to say, because I don’t think that people ever hear this part of this testimony, Dr. Dobson and Shirley helped me to raise my children. Now, let me tell you how that happened. I’m an old lady now, 73. All of my children are adults and I have grandchildren. But when I was raising my children, I was at my wits end. I had six strong-willed children. And now I have 11 strong-willed grandchildren. I didn’t know how to handle them. And so I followed Dr. Dobson’s ministry on the strong-willed children. child. And I learned how to work with them because I had the kind of children, you know, the scripture, spare the rod and spoil the child. So I would try to spank them or do all that and they would cross their arms. It didn’t hurt. It didn’t hurt.

SPEAKER 01 : 2:47

Yeah. What was that noise?

SPEAKER 03 : 2:48

So this is what I got. The Bible didn’t say hurt the child, kill the child. And if you beat them, it didn’t say do it for destructive purposes.

SPEAKER 01 : 2:57

Amen.

SPEAKER 03 : 2:57

So I’m going to give you a spanking now, and then we’re going to sit down and read the Bible and figure out what we both should have been doing, and we’re going to read it together. So I grew up with my children, and now my grandchildren, with Dr. Dobson and Shirley’s messages and lessons. And so I wanted to say that. Well, thank you. Now, to answer, being born into what I call a legacy family. Every family is a legacy family. God makes no mistakes, so… God has put us in the families that God chose for us to be born into. But in my family, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and my daddy, Reverend Alfred Daniel Williams King, and their sister, Christine King Farris, brothers and sisters. And so we were taught to love God. Daddy King was a preacher. His wife’s father was a preacher, and his wife’s grandfather was a preacher. Daddy King inherited Ebenezer Baptist Church as a pastor from his wife’s family. And so I was raised by preachers, business people, creative people, educators, and people who were involved in government. And so that’s who you see before you today. We were taught faith, hope, and love. Amen. to forgive our enemies. And we were taught that of one blood, God made all people to live on the face of the earth. We are not separate races. And my uncle would say, we must learn to live together as brothers and our lead as sisters and not perish together as fools.

SPEAKER 01 : 4:28

Beautifully put and so well stated. And this living legacy that you have even today, something else you and Dr. Dobson have in common is your commitment to the sanctity of human life. And you were named one of the 50 greatest pro-life leaders of the last 50 years. You and Dr. Dobson share space on that list. Talk about why the sanctity of life is so important to you, Alveda King. I know you have a story to tell about why the pre-born child is so important as well as the mother of that pre-born child.

SPEAKER 03 : 4:57

Well, I remember when Dr. Dobson began to get those ultrasound machines, and that was the technology that was being used in medicine. And he launched a whole crusade to put those ultrasounds in so many other places, in pregnancy care centers and community places where mothers could see that baby in their stomach. And I remember saying, I wish they had had that ultrasound technology when I had my abortions. Because if I had been able to see that ultrasound, I would not have had any abortions. I ended up with two abortions and a miscarriage because of damage. Well, for instance, my grandfather, my mom conceived me, mom and dad, in 1950. And mom was a college student. Abortion was illegal, but they were doing DNCs, procedures to explore if you had a stomachache.

SPEAKER 01 : 5:53

That’s what they called it. That’s what they did.

SPEAKER 03 : 5:56

And so mom wanted to get that exploratory process because she, if I am pregnant, I don’t know what to do. And my granddaddy, they went, she and her mother, Big Mama Bessie, went to their pastor. Mom and dad were engaged to be married. They got married before I was born, actually. But granddaddy said, that’s an abortion. You can’t do that. That’s my granddaughter. She has bright skin and bright red hair, and she’s going to bless many people. Now, prophetically, that was my prophetic ultrasound.

SPEAKER 01 : 6:23

Oh, that’s wonderful.

SPEAKER 03 : 6:24

And so the ultrasound, of course, has saved many, many babies since those times and those days. I repented in 1983. He received Jesus Christ, not as granddaddy’s God or daddy’s or uncle’s God, mama’s. Jesus became my Lord in 1983. So I realized my whole worldview changed according to the Bible. Choose life so that you and your children can live. And my whole mindset changed in 83. So where I had supported women’s rights, which included abortion prior to that, had been elected to public office on various platforms. I said, no, this is a human being, regardless of skin color, regardless of community, regardless if it’s a boy or girl. It’s a human being. And from that day on, 83, to today, I have shared the message with Dr. Dobson, supported the ultrasound ministry, the pregnancy care centers, the elect people who believe in human life from the womb to the tomb and beyond. That philosophy came, really, lights came on the moment I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

SPEAKER 01 : 7:36

Dr. Alveda King, you mentioned your time spent serving in the state legislature in the state of Georgia. It was a tough time for a lot of people, especially for those in the Christian faith and pro-life community. Has you seen it change? I mean, I look at the Dobbs decision. What was your reaction to that when you first, June 24th, 2022, what a great day that was for so many people who wanted to see Roe versus Wade overturned. What was your initial reaction?

SPEAKER 03 : 7:59

One of my granddaddy, Daddy King’s favorite scriptures was write the vision and make it plain so that those who see it can run with it. And truth has to be told. The Bible talks about generations to come. Teach your children and your children’s children and your children’s children’s children. So moving forward, if truth is not told in every generation, every decade and on every platform, people forget. So when we look at the reversal of Roe versus Wade, the Dobbs case, It didn’t just happen overnight. It didn’t just happen in a vacuum or anything like that. There were years and years of people proclaiming gospel truth that human life is sacred. And when we forget to proclaim that truth, then people forget. And so that’s when bad things happen. And there’s a scripture, when bad things happen, it’s because good people do nothing. Right. And I have a saying, when peripherals collide, convergence is imminent. That can be for good or bad. When a lot of bad things happen, they all come together and they make up evil. But when people do what’s right, trust each other, love each other, repent, ask for Jesus to come into their lives, then whatever our gifts and talents happen to be, they can become useful when we serve each other and we serve God. So understanding that. I can take no credit, really, for the reversal of Roe v. Wade, but I can take credit. We all can. Because everyone who prayed, God, that’s a bad law. Fix it. We all together, our prayers, our efforts, our governmental efforts, our serving efforts, our protests in front of those abortion mill efforts, those were needed too. When you put all of that together, then you see hearts change. And I’m so excited to be at NRB. Thank you. And that’s where we’re recording this. I’m seeing so many young people.

SPEAKER 01 : 9:51

Yes.

SPEAKER 03 : 9:52

And without the young and without their voices and the technology, then we can’t do it. I would say to people not to be afraid in this space. And that’s my song, Occupy. In the spaces in between, don’t be afraid. Satan has a title, Prince of the Power of the Air, but it’s just a title. Jesus has all authority. He has given us authority. He says, Occupy till I come. And he’s given us authority to tread on snakes and scorpions. Do not fear. Fear not.

SPEAKER 01 : 10:19

Amen.

SPEAKER 03 : 10:19

Knock out the uncircumcised Philistines.

SPEAKER 01 : 10:22

I love it. That’s exactly where we need to be. You talked about how Dr. Dobson helped you with your six kids and now your 11 strong-willed grandkids. Oh, my goodness. And good for you. Lots of copies of The Strong-Willed Child. Still.

SPEAKER 03 : 10:33

And it’s so relevant right this minute.

SPEAKER 01 : 10:35

It is. It is. It’s perfect. When you were younger, I mean, think about when you were born, the civil rights movement was in full swing when you were in those very impressionable years, middle school. What was that like at home? What was it like hearing the conversations behind the scenes that we didn’t see? We saw the marches. We saw the protests. We didn’t hear the strategy sessions.

SPEAKER 03 : 10:54

I learned the truth of those strategy sessions the hard way when my uncle, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was killed. Well, let’s go back to 1963. Before that, that was 68. So we were in Birmingham, Alabama. And Birmingham was often called Bombingham because there was a lot of anarchy and bombings and hates over skin color in Birmingham. And our home was bombed. It was the night before Mother’s Day in 1963. Daddy was working on his sermon. Mama was setting the table. The children had already been put to bed. My brother was in the middle of the House of Orange home. He was watching a war movie, and he had fallen asleep on the couch, and the bombs were going off on the TV. Daddy gets up, Holy Spirit-inspired, I believe, walks to the front. He looks at my mother, who’s standing looking out the picture window, and the window had begun to crack. Dad said, let’s get out of here. It’s too quiet. He takes mom either by the hand or picked her up. There’s two stories on that. I don’t know. But they get to the middle of the house. The whole front of the house explodes. There were two bombs. First, it cracked the window. Holy Spirit had sent daddy to get mother. He gets to the middle of the house. The whole front of the house blows up. So what I remember from that, they were trying to kill my uncle, Martin Luther King Jr., who usually stayed in our guest room. But God had sent him away. He didn’t spend the night in that room that night. And so daddy gets out on a car. Because the outside agitators, and that’s people who are paid to go into a community and stir up anarchy in times of fear and distress. So they were there. And then the residents of the community had come out of their home. So all of a sudden, people were flooding the streets. They were trying to turn the cars over, starting fires and things. So daddy stands on the car. I don’t remember if he had a bullhorn or not, but I remember him saying, wait a minute, wait a minute. No, no. If you have to hit somebody, hit me. My family and I are OK. Please go home and pray. Please go home and pray. The residents who knew us heard that they went home. So all the people who were causing the ruckus were left out there. And so Daddy quelled that storm and asked people to go home and pray. I remember that. And then in 68, by then the movement of black power and women power and free love and all that was going on. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. And I remember saying to my dad, he was grieving. I didn’t think about that. He was about to take my uncle’s widow to get the body. And I said, Daddy, I hate white people. I hate white people, Daddy. Alveda, you can’t hate white people. White people pray with us. White people live with us. White people work with us. White people go to jail with us. White people die with us. White people didn’t kill my brother. White people didn’t kill your uncle. The devil did. He said of one blood, God made all people. To live together on the face of the earth has nothing to do with skin color. It has to do with the human heart. So that was a hard lesson. But I remember daddy doing that. I remember my grandfather saying, serve and serve God and serve each other. I remember my uncle talking about love. And my daddy made me believe Jesus Christ was real, that Jesus walked on water and turned the water to wine. And that’s why today I’m able to forgive quickly and keep living.

SPEAKER 01 : 14:15

That’s so important for people to hear. You mentioned the agitators who come into certain areas. I don’t think people realize how many paid actors are the ones who show up. We think those are the citizens of the town.

SPEAKER 03 : 14:25

Why are the people burning up their own house?

SPEAKER 01 : 14:26

Exactly, exactly. Why would you? And we understand the passion. We understand the frustration. But we don’t understand the destruction.

SPEAKER 03 : 14:32

That’s right.

SPEAKER 01 : 14:33

And I think the beauty of what your uncle and your father instilled in you and the ministry you carry on with Alveda King Ministries is that heart for saying, look, we want to tell the truth.

SPEAKER 02 : 14:42

Yes.

SPEAKER 01 : 14:43

What’s really happening. Yes. And it’s beautiful to see how God has used all of those moments in your life. What would you say now to the younger generation who’s coming up and saying, well, Dr. King, with all due respect, you don’t know what it’s like to be young and black in America in 2024. which is 60 years removed, you’ve got a lot of wisdom to share with younger people who are seeing injustices and wondering, okay, what’s a godly response? What would you tell them?

SPEAKER 03 : 15:08

I have that beautiful opportunity with my own children and own grandchildren. It’s hopeless. The world is terrible. You don’t see anything. You don’t know that. I say, yes, I know that. And yet I am determined to always overcome evil with good. And when we talk to the young people like that, that’s where their hope comes from. And then we have to remind the young, and when I say the young, that’s even the little babies now almost, into preteens all the way up. They don’t know their history.

SPEAKER 01 : 15:39

I’m talking with Dr. Alveda King today here on this special edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, reminiscing, looking forward to the future, and moving forward now. You mentioned the legacy that Dr. Dobson has had in helping you. Can you just briefly touch on that for just a moment?

SPEAKER 03 : 15:55

When I sit and think about Dr. Dobson, Shirley, that whole legacy and that family, the days that I studied about the strong-willed child with six children of my own with strong wills and now 11 grandchildren. And I talk to all of my children often. And they say, Mom, we just still think you’re great. You’ve taught us so much. And one other thing, during that same time period with Dr. Dobson, Integrity Music had done a series on Bible music, and it sang the scriptures continually, continually. And so I played that in my home and in my car and in the music environment. And my children always say, now they’re playing scripture music to their children. Love it. So it’s important when we train up a child in the way that child should go. When the child is mature, the child will not depart, come back to it. I did. I certainly did. And my children and grandchildren are doing that. There is something that’s occurring right now here in 2024, and I was so amazed by it. The fights over the national anthem. Colin Kaepernick knelt a while back, and everybody thought that was so disrespectful and so terrible. And now there is another anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, which some call the Black Anthem, Negro Anthem, which was written by a black Republican in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, which is so funny.

SPEAKER 01 : 17:22

Right, right.

SPEAKER 03 : 17:23

So now people want to fight, well, which anthem? I said, do you ever go to church and they sing two or three different songs? And you get in an argument about which song they shouldn’t sing.

SPEAKER 01 : 17:33

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER 03 : 17:33

So we have a national anthem and it says, oh, say, can you see? Well, we better see. We better see the truth. We better remember the beautiful history and all together as Americans sing that song. But I have sung that song, the national anthem, and then turned right around at the same rallies. And Father Frank Pavone and I, for instance.

SPEAKER 01 : 17:54

From your Priests for Life days.

SPEAKER 03 : 17:55

From my Priests for Life days would sing Lift Every Voice and Sing.

SPEAKER 01 : 17:57

Oh, I’d love to hear that.

SPEAKER 03 : 17:58

And then we would say, but we’re not singing it over skin color. We’re singing it for the babies.

SPEAKER 01 : 18:02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER 03 : 18:02

So when we find ourselves splintering and arguing, that’s strife. And we have to stop it. And we can do it if we continue faith, hope, love, repentance, forgiveness, embracing human dignity from the womb to the tomb and beyond. And even those who say, oh, well, the best thing to do for abortion right now is to say we’ll stop it after six weeks or 20 weeks or something. Why argue over weeks? Why not just try to save every life possible without killing anybody and serve the baby and the mother? So when we get bogged into fighting over weeks or… Now, this one is real crazy. You have to think about this. And I pray that your listeners pick this up, too. Well, my uncle said, hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. So we admit abortion is evil. So how are we going to use evil abortion to drive out abortion?

SPEAKER 02 : 19:02

Right.

SPEAKER 03 : 19:03

By making a law of an exception, we’re going to take this little bit of evil. We’re still going to do it, but it’s going to get rid of the other evil. Evil will not get rid of evil. It won’t do it. So we have to find ways to serve people with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. From the womb to the tomb, beyond that includes the mama, the baby, the daddies. the grandparents, the community, and we actually can do it. If we just enforce life-affirming laws that are already on the books, because it’s one thing to pass a law, but if the law is never enforced, it won’t matter.

SPEAKER 01 : 19:37

Amen. Amen. That’s powerful testimony. And you were talking music earlier, and I was just trying to envision Frank singing Lift Every Voice. I mean…

SPEAKER 03 : 19:44

We would sing it together. It’s a beautiful hymn.

SPEAKER 01 : 19:48

I like the Clyburn suggestion of making it a national hymn.

SPEAKER 03 : 19:51

And don’t think about skin color when you sing it.

SPEAKER 01 : 19:52

Just don’t do that. It’s such a song of unification, overcoming. I mean, Christians can relate to it. Everybody should be able to relate to it. Music has that power, and I know that’s a huge part of your ministry, Alveda King. Talk about what you’ve been doing musically, and maybe we can even convince you to sing a little bit.

SPEAKER 03 : 20:07

I might do that.

SPEAKER 01 : 20:08

You just might? Okay.

SPEAKER 03 : 20:09

Well, one, I just started singing it around the late 80s, early 90s. Thank you, Lord, for saving me. As a matter of fact, I’ll just do that one right quick now. Thank you, Lord, for saving me. Thank you, Lord, for saving me. Lord, you are my healer and you’re my provider. Thank you for supplying all my need. Now, there’s a YouTube video, Elvita King. Thank you, Lord. So you can see that you can occupy until he comes. Occupy. Jesus said occupy and to overcome. So we occupy and we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.

SPEAKER 01 : 20:56

Yes, those great words from Revelation. Television has been a part of your ministry for a long time. You’ve been a contributor to Fox and Friends. You’ve been on Fox Nations with Alveda King’s house. You have a brand new talk show that just launched a television program called The Vision. Take us through what The Vision is all about. I understand it really got off to a fantastic start.

SPEAKER 03 : 21:14

Well, we have a website, thevisiontvshow.com. And on the media dropdown, you can see the first four shows. There’s a schedule of 24 of them, and we’re still in production. I’m working with Destiny Yarbrough, and we are co-executive producers. And my friend, Dave Gardner, who 10 years ago, we did a pilot called The Vision.

SPEAKER 01 : 21:38

Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER 03 : 21:39

And we were tired of the secular show, The View. Now we’ve got The Christian View. It’s a good show. It’s out there. And there are some other shows, The Christian Vision, all of that. So we have joined that pool of overcoming evil with good with a Christian show, a Bible-based show. And we talk about different topics. We talk about hard topics, raising our children, The abortion issue, we were on with Lance Wall now. So it’s exciting to join Destiny and four other hosts. We rotate as hosts and we talk about hard issues and fun issues of the day.

SPEAKER 01 : 22:15

True renaissance woman, Dr. Alveda King. Alveda King’s house has a lot of cooking. I mean, that’s a big part of your ministry, too. Absolutely. Why is the culinary so important? I don’t think people realize there’s a real spiritual connection to preparing food, making meals.

SPEAKER 03 : 22:30

There’s a spiritual connection to the land, to the earth, to the soil. We’ve got the parables of where seed is sown, and it can only grow and prosper and blossom. And so we want people to be healthy, whole, and spirit, soul, and body. And we do that nutritionally as well. And interestingly enough… Gardening was always my hobby. But in 2023, I became a certified farmer with the USDA because I would on Elvita King’s house and on my Christmas show with the vision. And now we’re going to do cooking rollouts. I grow herbs and vegetables in my home garden. And now we’re doing hoop houses with the farm and all of that, teaching people how how to return to the earth, to return to the soil and then to cook good, nutritious food. And I use some of the family recipes in my cookbook as well. And that’s a lot of fun. So there’s a lot of interest in cooking and also restoring houses, too. So people are we’re in a time of restoration, looking for answers, looking for health. And so we find it, but we still look for our source and inspiration from God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER 01 : 23:44

It all comes back to that restoration, redemption, reconnection with God, and your ministry in every aspect of it, in every language, every expression of it speaks to that. Dr. Alveda King, thank you for your time today. Thank you for being with us and the wonderful ministry that you have. And God bless you from all of us here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. We appreciate you so much.

SPEAKER 03 : 24:03

Thank you.

SPEAKER 02 : 24:09

be strong. The battle rages on, but the victory

SPEAKER 01 : 24:19

Well, that was Dr. Alveda King and her song, Occupy, a kingdom victory song. You can find it on YouTube and Spotify, by the way. And if you’d like to share today’s program with a friend or loved one, simply visit us online at drjamesdobson.org forward slash Family Talk. Or remember, you can always share our programming using the Family Talk app. Well, if you enjoyed the conversation you heard today, be sure to request your copy of our 2024 Best of Broadcast collection. Today’s interview with Dr. Alveda King is just one of the many exceptional programs we’ve included on this six CD set, which is also available as a digital download. To get yours, go to drjamesdobson.org. We’ll be happy to send you a copy as our way of thanking you for your gift of any amount in support of our ministry. That’s drjamesdobson.org forward slash family talk. Remember, you can also give a gift over the phone when you call 877-732-6825. And keep in mind, now through New Year’s Eve, December 31st, your gift will go twice as far thanks to a special matching grant that’s in effect. Just imagine, a $50 donation becomes $100. A $1,000 donation becomes $2,000. But don’t wait. The deadline is December 31st, and time is running out. To make a secure donation online, go to drjamesdobson.org. Well, I’m Roger Marsh. Thanks for spending some time with us today. And be sure to join us again tomorrow right here for another edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk. This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.