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Actress, Producer, Author
Yolanda King '76 Dies
Yolanda King '76, who died May 15 in California,
is being remembered for her role in carrying forward the civil rights work of her
father, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Yolanda King majored in theatre and Afro-American
studies at Smith and returned to campus on a number of occasions to perform and
speak about her father’s legacy.
In 1999, Smith honored King among a group
of "remarkable women" graduates, during a celebration marking the college’s
125th year. Following is an essay about her achievements prepared for that gathering.
As an undergraduate student, Yolanda King ’76
sometimes struggled to find the words to “defend her father against Smithies
who misunderstood his philosophy.” In 1989, she returned to her alma mater
and spoke passionately to approximately 1,200 people about Martin Luther King Jr.’s
legacy and the problems that still confront America. In the intervening years, she
had found her voice, and the hour-long speech was acknowledged with a standing ovation.
Yolanda grew up burdened not only by the tragedy of
her father’s death, but by the expectations placed on the children of those
who die young with important work not yet completed. Each of Dr. King’s children
has had to learn to live with and accept his legacy. Yolanda’s sister, Bernice,
became a minister, her brother Dexter is now president of the non-profit Martin Luther
King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, brother Martin, III is
president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization founded
by their father, and Yolanda seeks to promote social change and justice was through
the performing arts.
At Smith, she majored in theater and Afro-American studies,
going on to graduate from New York University with an M.F.A. in theater. Her love
for the theater began in early childhood. At age eight, Yolanda wrote a play and
persuaded her reluctant siblings to perform it for family and friends. As a teenager,
she studied acting, speech and dance, and, while performing around Atlanta with the
Actor’s and Writer’s Workshop, she found her calling.
Though her father considered acting a “frivolous
and unstable” vocation, it is his abilities as a compelling public presence
that Yolanda has frequently and successfully evoked. She recognizes that acting requires
not only an “ability to fully share one’s self and empathize with others,” but
also that the arts can have a “dramatic impact upon people’s lives and
contribute to shaping attitudes and values.”
A founding member of Christian Theatre Artists, Yolanda
also served for 10 years as the co-director, with Malcolm X’s daughter Attallah
Shabazz, of NUCLEUS, a company of performing artists that travels to high schools,
colleges, and communities nationwide, promoting “positive energy through the
arts.” A seasoned and respected actress, Yolanda has performed frequently in
theatre, film and television projects. Through her company, Higher Ground Productions,
Yolanda toured extensively with a one-woman play called Tracks, which she
was inspired to produce after encountering an elderly woman who told her, “The
tracks have already been laid; you just have to stay in them.”
Through this play and her current one-woman production Achieving
the Dream, which she produced this past summer at the National Black Theater
Festival in Winston Salem, Yolanda brings her father’s message to today’s
youth. “I want everyone who hears my father’s words to feel empowered. I
want them to know they hold the key to a better life,” she explained. |
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Yolanda
D. King ’76
