What Happened To The Children Of Civil Rights Martyrs? : Code Switch : NPR: Most Americans think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a brilliant young minister who was one of the architects of the civil rights movement, and who was martyred for it in 1968, when he was assassinated. But to the revered leader's eldest son, Martin Luther King III — "Marty" to his family and friends — the famous Dr. King was just "Daddy." And like millions of other daddies across the country, he got pestered by his kids when they wanted something.
Martin King chuckles, remembering how he and his older sister Yolanda used to clamor to go to Fun Town and Six Flags. They frequently drove by those segregated amusement parks with their mother, Coretta Scott King, as they dropped off their father at the airport for one of his many out-of-town speaking engagements or rallies.
"We must have passed by Six Flags a hundred times," King recalls. "Many of those times, we were told, 'You're not able to go now, but Daddy's working on it, and one day we will be able to go.'"
