Yolanda King

CTL-E-5390 · Person · activist · 1955–2007

VERIFIED evidence grade of this record

Yolanda Denise King was born in Montgomery on November 17, 1955, two weeks before Rosa Parks's arrest launched the bus boycott her father would lead, and she was an infant in the house when it was bombed in January 1956. Her father, Martin Luther King Jr., wrote of explaining to young Yolanda why she could not enter the Funtown amusement park — an early, searing lesson in what segregation meant to a child. She was twelve when her father was assassinated. Rather than live only as a symbol of that loss, King built her own instruments: she earned a degree with honors in theatre and African American studies at Smith College and a master's in theatre at New York University, then used performance as public teaching. She played Rosa Parks in the 1978 television miniseries King, Betty Shabazz in Death of a Prophet, and Medgar Evers's daughter Reena in Ghosts of Mississippi — repeatedly embodying the movement's women and families. Through her company, Higher Ground Productions, and years of lecturing, she carried a message of nonviolence, personal growth, and social change to schools and civic audiences, and served the King Center her mother founded. She died in Santa Monica on May 15, 2007, aged fifty-one, shortly after speaking for stroke awareness. Her flowers honor a daughter who refused to be only an heir: she became an artist-activist in her own voice.

The record

• Also known as: Yolanda Denise King

Notes

Statistics: Born November 17, 1955, Montgomery; eldest of four King children; Smith College B.A. and NYU M.F.A. (per Stanford King Institute); portrayed Rosa Parks in King (1978) and Reena Evers in Ghosts of Mississippi (1996); founded Higher Ground Productions; died May 15, 2007, aged 51, Santa Monica (King Institute; Congressional Record, accessed 2026-10-15). · Curator's Judgment: DRAFT — Yolanda King's flowers recognize craft as activism: she taught the movement's history by performing it, reaching audiences a podium could not. CTL records her as an artist and educator, not only a daughter. · Photo slot: CLEARED — Wikimedia Commons File:Yolanda King 1995.jpg, John Mathew Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0, verified via Commons API 2026-10-15; direct URL https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Yolanda_King_1995.jpg; master in packet photos/yolanda-king.jpg.

Relationships

• Martin Luther King Jr. — related to
  Daughter and father: Yolanda Denise King was the eldest child of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, born November 17, 1955 in Montgomery.

Sources

• Stanford University, Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, "King, Yolanda Denise" — https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-yolanda-denise (primary source)
• U.S. Congress, Congressional Record, tribute to Yolanda Denise King — https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/volume-153/issue-87/extensions-of-remarks-section/article/E1150-1

Record CTL-E-5390 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: VERIFIED · 2 sources (1 primary) · 1 mapped relationship · CTL research: PPL-001.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Cite this record

Citation guidance for teachers, journalists, and funders: How to Cite Us.