My name is Yolanda King. My daddy was Martin Luther King, Jr. Daddy was always trying to protect us from race discrimination, like segregation. When we were younger, he would always try to hide it from us. In movie theaters, shoe stores, everywhere. I really wanted to know what segregation was but I never got the chance to learn about it until one day when my brother, MLKIII ( but we like to call him MK), went to go buy some shoes at a store owned by white people who practiced segregation. MK was of course telling us the story because Daddy would never tell but we all know MK streatched the truth sometimes. "So like I was saying we entered the store with a swager." said MK with confidence. "Pishaw" I said in a disbelieving tone. MK continued ignoring my comment " We went into the store and asked for the shoes, the man at the counter said "Could you please go and wait at the back at the store. Now y'all don't understand, daddy was realllllllll angry. It was almost as if steam was coming out of his ears. We left that store without buying any shoes and we won't be back!" After seeing our amazed faces MK put on a smug grin and looked like he had just slayed the biggest dragon in the whole world.
Daddy wasn't done with segregation, oh no, he was just getting started. Later on in his life Daddy got arrested and put in jail many times but he knew that he was fighting for a rightious cause and he wouldn't let anything stop him. One of his campaigns was the Montgomery Bus Boycott, after Rosa Parks was arrested for not moving to the back of the bus. He stepped up to join and became the president or the offical spokesman of the Montgomery Improvement Association. This is the campaign that started him off. From then on he went up. Of course he always had time for us, meaning me, Bernice, Dexter, and Martin (or MK) but also Mamma who was the love of his life, and he wouldn't miss her for the world.
Almost a year later the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that segregation on buses was illegal. It was Daddy's first actual victory against segregation. About another year later Daddy formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to fight segregation and achieve civil rights. Then on May 17, 1957 Daddy king spoke to a crowd of 15,000 in Washington, Dc. The whole family was so proud of him. Thanks to his speech and his persistence the U.S. Congress passed the first Civil Rights Act since reconstruction. Also Daddy's book, Stride Toward Freedom was published. Only a few months later Daddy gave us a big scare when he was on a speaking tour and he was almost killed when he got stabbed in Harlem where he was speaking for Civil Rights.
After this incident Daddy went off to India to study Mohandas Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence. Daddy King stayed in India for a while and we all missed him, but he finally came back, and we threw him a huge suprise party. You should've seen his face! Since Daddy wanted to put all his effort into civil rights, he gave up his job and we moved to Atlanta where he became a co-pastor with Grandfather King at the Ebenezer Baptist Church.
MK had lots of friends but some of his closest friends were some white kids that lived near us. One day their mom said that they couldn't play with MK anymore. MK came home crying. "I dddiddn't do anything wwrong,hHe sobbed. I thoughts that we wwwas friends." "You are friends," comforted Daddy, "just for right now you have to not play with each other. Now why don't you go upstairs and go play with Yolanda and Dexter." "Okkkkkk I'll try." said MK in a stuttering tone, but by the sound of his voice he wasn't going to do any playing. We all knew from all the crying and sobs that MK wouldn't be telling us what happened so of course like children would we listened in. Mamma and Daddy started to talk in hushed tones so we lost their voices in all the racket of the dish washer.
In 1961 the Congress on Racial Equality(CORE) began the first Freedom Ride in the South. Now these freedom rides were meant for good but it turned out that most people in the south weren't on their side. This lead to beatings and mobings ablong with a firebomb to one bus. Many people were injured but theywere able to make their point anyway. Daddy supported the Freedom Rides. He went to Montgomery and gave a speech about the freedom rides and how they were good. All of this led to Robert Kennedy making interstate bus travel law more specific. They may not have gotten to New Orleans put they proved their point.
MK, Bernice, Dexter and I were starting to get scared. Nobody was treating us with equality and it had something to do with segregation. Daddy almost got killed is scary enough.
At the end of August, 1963 there was a great march on Washington, the nation's capital. This was were Daddy King gave his most famous speech, the I Have a Dream speech. " I have a dream that my four little children will one day be judged, not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." These words were spoken by my Daddy, Martin Luther King Jr. These words did not only touch me but they also inspired me, inspired me to be something great, like my father. On December 10, 1964 Daddy became the youngest man ever to win the nobel peace prize. He was awarded this medal in Oslo, Norway. Everyone in the neighborhood was proud of Daddy, even some of the whites. But not all were proud of him, even some people were jelous. Daddy became deeply involved in the anti-war protest that swept our nation. In April of 1968 Daddy went to Memphis, Tenesee to support black industrial workers who were in a dispute, but on April 4, 1968 at around 6:00 P.M. Daddy was shot. We got a call saying that he had been shot but we weren't sure if it was fatal or not. But in another 30 miniutes we knew. Daddy was going to die. Everyone was crying but I couldn't cry, I felt just to numb to do anything but sit there. "Daddy, gone?" I kept repeating in my head. I finally realized that he was gone forever, he wasn't going to say goodnight to me anymore, there would be no more exicting stories, there would be no more good night kisses either.
I felt mad at him, it was his fault that he had gone to Memphis, and it was his fault that he would never be coming back. I now realize that I was wrong about those things. All he was doing was trying to help African Americans and all the people of the nation. He fought for a rightious cause and I will never forget him and I am proud to be his daughter. He will always be with me, in my heart.