Vol. 38, No. 18

1-4-2007
By:

Yolanda King to keynote OSU’s Martin Luther King Jr. event

Yolanda King, the eldest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., will speak at Ohio State’s annual festivities celebrating her late father’s civil rights activism.

The 35th anniversary of the program will begin at 7 p.m. Jan. 11 in Hitchcock Auditorium in Hitchcock Hall and features musical selections from OSU’s African-American Voices.

“We wanted to have someone special for the 35th anniversary,” said Lawrence Williamson, director of The Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural Center. “While the event has featured many outstanding speakers over the years, bringing Yolanda King to Ohio State University will be especially meaningful because of her memories of her father. We hope this choice will really resonate with people.”

Yolanda King was born two weeks before Rosa Parks’ refusal to sit at the back of a Montgomery, Ala., bus helped spur the civil rights movement. King, an actress and producer, later portrayed Parks in the NBC-TV film “King,” one of her many film and television roles blending her interest in acting with her support for human rights. Her film credits also include playing Betty Shabazz, wife of Malcolm X, in the film “Death of A Prophet” with Morgan Freeman, and Reena Evers in “Ghosts of Mississippi.”

King’s approach to social change is reminiscent of her father’s. “While it is imperative to actively challenge the forces that deny human beings their right to a decent life…one must also stimulate and alter the hearts and minds of both the privileged as well as those who have been too long denied,” she says on her Web site. “Within the arts lies this power.”

King has been involved in a range of theater projects and formed Higher Ground Productions, a multimedia theatrical production celebrating her father. Her one-woman show — featuring her portrayal of 16 characters — toured the country for four years. She received a bachelor’s degree in theater and African American studies from Smith College and a master’s degree in theater from New York University. She also has been a visiting professor in theater at Fordham University in New York.

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