Living the Dream

An Interview with Dr. Alveda King

Dr. Alveda King comes from a long line of God-fearing civil rights activists, and although many recognize her name due to her uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., she doesn't rest on his, or her father's, laurels. She is a prominent pro-life force in her own right and continues to echo the words of her uncle when he powerfully proclaimed that God made all men out of one blood; that there should be no "white power" or "black power," but only God's power and human power; and that "we must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools."

In her book We're Not Color­blind: Healing the Racial Divide (2020), she wrote that we must see and celebrate color, but we must also remember through all the racial strife and upheaval taking place in our society that we are one human race and one blood. As stated by her uncle, "When you learn to value the human personality, you won't kill anybody."

Despite being saved from abortion herself, Alveda was pro-choice until her early thirties. Since becoming pro-life, she's had an active political career, has become an accomplished author and contributor to Fox News, and is involved in several pro-life organizations, such as Civil Rights for the Unborn. Civil Rights for the Unborn seeks to be an outreach not only for the American black community, but for the general population as well, to educate people on the sanctity of life and the harmful impacts of abortion. The organization also focuses on bringing to light the ongoing genocide of the black community that Planned Parenthood continues from its founder, Margaret Sanger.

Now 71 years old, Dr. Alveda King isn't slowing down. As the recently appointed chairman of the Center for the American Dream, an arm of the America First Policy Institute, she is seeking to "advance policies that enhance civil rights, human dignity, and the sanctity of life in order to ensure that all Americans have equal access and opportunity to achieve the American dream, from the womb to the tomb."¹ She also recently launched Speak for Life, a pro-life organization aimed at equipping school-aged children with the tools necessary to be well-informed leaders in the pro-life movement.

How did you become involved in the pro-life movement?

My parents were courting; they were boyfriend-girlfriend in the 1940s. In 1950, I was conceived. They were engaged to be married. They were college students. My mother wanted a D&C [dilation and curettage, a surgical procedure]. Abortions were illegal, but D&Cs were not.

My grandfather, "Daddy King," Martin Luther King, Sr., said, "You know what? That's my granddaughter. I saw her in a dream three years ago. She has bright skin and bright red hair, and she's going to bless many people." So I said, "What a prophetic ultrasound!" [She laughs.] But that was kind of like a family secret because those things weren't discussed during those days.

Anyway, I was allowed to be born and all of that. I was born on January 22, 1951, and Roe v. Wade passed in '73, on my birthday. If you think about all of that, I will always thank God.

Then I became a grown woman, married, divorced. I had two secret abortions and a miscarriage from a botched abortion and all that. I was very pro-choice, believe it or not. Somewhere between 1983 and 1984, I became a born-again Christian. I confessed all of my sins, including the abortions and everything, and my worldview changed when I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior. So I became pro-life around '83–'84, and I've been pro-life ever since.

Interestingly enough, right now, here we are towards the end of 2021 [the time of our interview], and there's a lot of discussion about racism, critical race theory, abortion, human sexuality—so many issues are swirling. People are frightened by Covid. All of these things are occurring here in 2021. My perspective as a pro-life Christian woman who was rescued from abortion in 1950 is that human life, from the womb to the tomb, is sacred. As the newly appointed chairman of the Center for the American Dream for America First Policy Institute, I promote life from the womb to the tomb. I am the founder of Speak for Life—that is a pro-life organization as well—and so all human life, all human dignity, is important. There is a critical race—it is called the human race. One blood.

Is there any pro-choice argument that really gets under your skin every time you hear it?

None of the arguments regarding abortion get under my skin anymore because at one time I was pro-choice. If I had not been rescued from abortion in 1950, I would not be alive, so I'm just very, very grateful for life. And a particular quote I've been using for many years now is, "A woman has a right to choose what she does with her body. The baby is not her body. Where's the lawyer for the baby? How can the dream survive if we murder our children?"

If people would actually view them as human beings . . .

There has to be a way to serve humanity without killing humanity. There has to be. There's a primary force—it's called love, compassion, and regard for human beings.

Do you think there are more actions the pro-life movement could be taking to make abortion unthinkable, and what might those be?

I used to be kind of stone-cold "pro-life movement," but it's such a polarizing, divisive kind of a thought, and I tend to say "sanctity of life from womb to tomb" more now. But it's kind of still all the same thing. I think the way that you depolarize the issue for the sanctity of life is to regard each human life as sacred.

You talked about Speak for Life. Would you be able to talk a little bit about what those curricula would entail in each grade level?

As a parent and a grandparent, and apparently a great-grandparent soon—one of my grandchildren married—I believe, and what I have discovered is, those children will say to me in thirty years, "Babies are like slaves." And I already know the principle of it, but I would ask them to talk to me about that. "That's because they don't get to make any decisions." "You know, that's right, little boy/little girl."

And I realized the babies, the children, needed a curriculum to do apologetics as well. Children are naturals, and it's what the youth organizer in the 1960s, the civil rights movement back then, did with us. It's the young people who really did quite a bit of the protesting, the talking.

And so, every generation needs equipment, tools. And today, you know, I would laugh when it first started coming out of my daughter, who bought me my first iPhone many years ago now, and she said, "If you don't know how to text, you'll never talk to me again." And it was true!

So even at seventy years of age now, about to be seventy-one, people say, "But you're old. How can you do all this social media stuff?" And I say, "Just stay relevant, and you learn 'less is more,' so if you can say something in 140 characters or less, it's going to stick in their minds." A picture's worth a thousand words, as we know—a curriculum that will paint pictures with soundbites.

And now the TikTok rage and all that—I posted a TikTok of a one-hundred-plus old lady, and my grandchildren said, "What do you know about TikTok!?" [She laughs again.] To be honest, not much, but they just thought it was so cool that I do stuff on TikTok. My little granddaughter is asking me to subscribe to her page, and I did.

That's awesome! I'm not even on TikTok, so the fact that you know how to use it . . .

I'm on TikTok, and I was laughing, but it worked. So it got me a new ear. They listen to me a little more now.

Speaking of your grandchildren, on a lighter note from the abortion topic, what is your greatest joy in life?

My greatest joy after being a servant for Jesus is family, and the very simplest things in life. I really believe the best things in life are free. To me they are. There's a song [she sings], "I like to greet the sun each morning"—you know, things like that we take for granted. I look and I see the sun come through the blinds all day, and some days I sit out on my deck, and I've got a little tiny pond that bubbles, a brook out there, and just the simplest things.

I think we take for granted how amazing God's creation really is. God is the ultimate artist.

Absolutely!

I'm sure people often ask you about your uncle, but is there anything your dad has said to you in the past that continues to motivate you in the fight?

He would just say, "Alveda, more people are concerned about making a living than a life." And all these years later, I'm so much older now than he was when he passed away, so he's eternally young in my memories.

What advice would you give post-abortive women who are still struggling with their decisions?

I'm on the advisory board for Abortion Recovery International and have been for many years; I'm so grateful. I would just say that hope and love are so important, and forgiveness. We can remember that, and "perfect love casts out all fear."

What's next for you? Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?

Well, I am the daughter of Reverend Alfred Daniel Williams King and Mrs. Naomi Ruth Barber King. My mother's ninetieth birthday is this year. I think it's an incredible miracle, so I'm very excited to celebrate her birthday.

A Blessing to Many

Dr. King's love for her Savior and fellow humans, and her grateful outlook on life are palpable. I feel blessed from having witnessed first-hand her soft-spoken, kind-hearted, intelligent, and thoughtful demeanor. Given her ability to have such a strong impact on one person in such a brief amount of time, I thoroughly believe that Daddy King was absolutely right—she has blessed many people!

Note

1. https://rumble.com/vora55-afpis-center-for-the-american-dream.html.