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3 Parents Michael King An industrious, hardworking, eager youth who was steeped in fundamentalist Christian faith and ideas, Michael King worked long, hard hours once he settled in Atlanta. He saved most of his money, attended school at night, and studied assiduously. After graduating from high school he tried unsuccessfully—at first—to enroll in Morehouse College. The registrar told him that he did not have the academic foundation and thus did not meet the admissions requirements. Therefore he could not be admitted. But young King was as stubborn and determined as they came and refused to be denied the chance to try. He therefore left the registrar’s office and pushed his way past the secretary to the office of then president, John Hope. Once there, his importunity resulted in his finally being granted special permission to begin studies at Morehouse.1 He was not a stellar student, but, arguably, none worked harder. He himself admitted years later that his studies at Morehouse “were the toughest of my life.”2 Having failed freshman English twice, the professor finally gave him the passing grade of D when he took the course a third time during summer school. Fortunately, he did not have a similar experience with other courses. While attending Morehouse, Mike King was pastor of two small churches in Atlanta. It was not long before he met Alberta Williams, the daughter of 1. Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), 37. Clayborne Carson tells us that King actually was aided by A. D. Williams in his attempt to gain admission. “Williams interceded with Morehouse president John Hope to gain admission for his future son-in-law” (Clayborne Carson, Martin’s Dream: My Journey and the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. [New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013], 143). Considering Williams’s stature in the Atlanta black community by this time and his close relationship with John Hope, I would say that Carson’s claim is more than plausible. 2. Martin Luther King Sr. with Clayton Riley, Daddy King: An Autobiography (New York: William Morrow, 1980), 87. 49 one of the leading ministers in the city, Rev. Adam Daniel Williams. Williams, we have seen, had a reputation for always courageously standing up to white people.3 Daddy King recalled that the idea of justice for his people burned in Williams’s soul. These are significant points inasmuch as they reveal his conviction that the gospel, rightly understood, is social. The gospel is relevant to the problems that demean and dehumanize human beings. Williams’s was social gospel Christianity at its best. Daddy King gave expression to what Williams taught him about what it means to be called to ministry: “Church wasn’t simply Sunday morning and a few evenings during the week. It was more than a full-time job. In the act of faith, every minister became an advocate for justice. In the South this meant an active involvement in changing the social order all around us.”4 In addition to his profound commitment to applying the gospel to social problems that adversely affected his people, Williams had a propensity and reputation for being able to accumulate material valuables. He was unquestionably one of black Atlanta’s elites. Although Mike King was much influenced by Williams’s style of ministry and his concern for the least of these, it should be noted that even before King was ordained he already understood and took as his own the idea that it is the pastor’s obligation and responsibility to address the everyday needs of parishioners.5 In addition, as a youngster he had much respect for those black preachers who stood up to whites and did not soften their prophetic critique against racism and injustice. From early in his ministry, then, Mike King’s social gospel Christianity included preaching sermons that appealed both to the mind and the emotions of the people while also addressing their material condition.6 By his own admission, he became a “chronic complainer” regarding the plight of his people. Looking back, he recalled that when he complained about segregation on buses and in other areas of the Atlanta community he “was told by more than a few Negroes to stop grandstanding about the racial situation in Atlanta because it was pretty darn good compared to a lot of places, and we should just be satisfied with it until whites could see their way clear to work...

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