Goddaughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. remembers his life and message

On Jan. 21, civil rights activist, actress and author Donzaleigh Abernathy delivered the keynote address during Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week, hosted by the Center for Multicultural Student Services.

Abernathy, the daughter of the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, co-founder of the Civil Rights Movement, described growing up during the turbulent era.

The year she was born, 1957, her family’s home in Montgomery, Alabama, was bombed, followed by the bombing of her father’s church on Ripley Street and then two more churches the same night. Her mother, Juanita, and older sister, who was still a baby at the time, were home the night of the explosion, but they survived. Following the attacks, her father and King had to find the courage to keep going, she said, and they decided they “wouldn’t let anything turn them around.”

Abernathy actively participated in the major protests of the era, like the Freedom Rides and the March on Washington, from a young age. As a 12-year-old, she delivered her first public speech at the Children’s March for Survival. 

More recently, Abernathy has been the keynote speaker for events and a lecturer at colleges and universities. Her book, Partners to History: Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and the Civil Rights Movement, is an insider’s perspective on the friendship between her father and King. Their friendship went beyond policy, she said, and they supported each other like brothers. Abernathy said she often saw King at her dinner table at least four nights a week and called him “Uncle Martin.”

Abernathy also touched on how the Civil Rights Movement began 70 years ago with Rosa Parks’ arrest, which pushed her father and King to the forefront of the Montgomery bus boycott.

“The Civil Rights Movement is about everybody coming together to make this country live up to the principles upon which this nation was founded,” Abernathy said. She explained how her father and King met while King was preaching at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Montgomery. She also discussed their focus on nonviolent efforts to end discrimination.

Abernathy’s own efforts to end discrimination include volunteering to help juveniles in the Los Angeles County justice system. “Let people in America know who you all are,” she said. “Let the people in Washington know who you are and what you stand for.

“And young people, you are our future. Because the rest of us old ones, we’re not going anywhere near the world of tomorrow where you all are going. You all can make this a better Earth. You can make this a better America.”