Black youth, in general, have no understanding of our past. Young black people who don't know who Martin Luther King Jr. was, don't know nothin'.
— Yolanda King
As an artist and as a Black woman coming out of a background that emphasizes service, there are certain responsibilities that I must assume. I see these responsibilities not as a burden, but as an extension of what I am.
When you say 'the man of the house,' the black woman has been the woman and the man of the house, because black men have so often had to spend all of their time and energy working and trying, at least, to give their families the basic needs. So black women, I find, are not really concerned about women's liberation.
Really just about the only remembrance I have from when I was very young is the way Daddy used to place me on the refrigerator and then say, ‘Jump!' and I'd jump into his arms. It was so much fun for me that even when I got too large for it to happen, I still wanted to do it anyway!
The best sermons are those that are lived.
What just resonates with me so strongly is my whole spirituality and the fact that we are, my belief that we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
My father was not really pleased when I told him of my choice to train as an actress, when he was with us in this dimension.
Somebody has always wanted me to speak as a voice of black America, but it has dawned on me that I can only speak for myself.
I struggled with a lot of the legacy for a long time, probably actually into my 30s before I really made peace with it.
At 16, I went to Smith College in Massachusetts and that was right after the peak of the civil-rights movement and all the rest. It was an era when students were making demands and many black students were closer to the teachings of Malcolm X, or what they thought were his teachings.
To really involve yourself in transforming yourself. That's the work that I'm really focused on through my company, Higher Ground Productions, is really helping people to really find a place of personal empowerment as well as inner peace.
As soon as people heard me speak, they would compare me to my father. My siblings had the same kind of pressure.
You see, for the most part it was a normal upbringing. Sure, there was the Nobel Peace award; sure, there were people coming to our house who I knew were famous. But we grew up in a very modest part of the community. Our last home was in what had been one of the worst ghettos in Atlanta.
A feeling of self worth is the best accomplishment we can foster in our prisons.
I will never grow up. Everyone wants to tell me how to live my life.
Broadway musicals like 'Ain't Misbehavin',' 'Eubie' and 'Bubblin' Brown Sugar' depict blacks having a light, wonderful time and that was just not so for blacks in the '20s and '30s.
Through the arts, you can impact upon people's attitudes, values, and understandings.
My friends… feel there are not that many people they can really look up to. They feel people are so hypocritical and fake… But I do have some people I respect, a great number of people, and I'm sure my friends have.
I have such strong memories of my Daddy.
When you see the commitment my parents exhibited… it was not for fame or fortune.
Obviously, since 9/11, here in this country there has been a resurgence of fear and people feeling distrustful of other people that are different. And what we chose to do was to focus on people coming together, working across those barriers of race, of culture, of religion, and really finding a heart connection.
I feel that I'm very much in touch with my father's spirit and presence. I feel it, sense it and take much energy and inspiration from that.
The civil rights movement was not a mirage… It was live and in living color.
I was watching the news that day when the bulletin came on that my father had been shot. I prayed. I asked God, 'Please don't let my daddy die.'
Do you know what I think of when I remember him? I think: He was such a kid. He taught me how to swim when I was 4 and how to ride a bike. So when I think of Martin Luther King, I think of laughter. I think of the play and the fun.
I have chosen to continue to promote 'we're one, the oneness of us,' and shine the spotlight, as my father did.
Given my belief that there is a divine purpose for my father's life on this planet, given the way I was raised, it's real hard to get angry. I get that from my daddy.
Til I was about eight or nine, I had no awareness he was anybody special. Since all our friends were in the movement, I thought what Daddy did was natural. Everybody went to jail, right? Then, one day some kids at school called my daddy a jailbird, and it upset me. That was the beginning of my awareness.
My mother supported me from the beginning and never said you should be an activist or civil rights leader or minister.
Within the theater lies the power to stimulate and alter the hearts and minds of both the privileged and those who have too long been denied.
By the time I was 12, I had decided to be an artist.
I am an artist with very strong social and political concerns.
One of my main reasons for going to college is to try to get a liberal arts background.
We've not reached the promised land. We're still wandering around, bumping into each other in the wilderness of ignorance and hate. That is why the King holiday is so important.
I know that no matter what is said about Martin the King Jr., what he contributed, what he gave, what he meant, what he means all over this planet cannot be tarnished.
I tease sometimes and say that the King holiday is a 20th-century miracle. Reagan even signed it, and he was completely opposed to the idea.
This is one of my favorite things to do, working with a symphonic accompaniment, because I don't sing - and this is as close as I will come to singing.
My father was bigger than life, an entity and everyone expected us, as his offspring, to be saintettes, these little carbon copies.
I try to understand people who do violence. I try to understand what they are feeling and experiencing.
We must celebrate difference until difference doesn't make a difference in the way we treat each other.
I found myself trying to be all things to all people. I felt a tremendous sense of responsibility and the pressure of expectation.
I wrote my first play when I was eight. It was about a queen, and I - of course! - was the queen.
And you don't have to be a preacher to carry on. That's why I've gone into the theater, with my mother's blessings, and someday I may write, produce and act in my own story of daddy's life. There are so many sides to his story. I hope that someday I could get that opportunity.
In life, I had to be prim and proper and poised - The King Daughter. But acting, I could be the zany, silly, sometimes foolish person that I am. I could let the raw edges show.
