Dr. Alveda King, the niece of famous civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is being called a “liar” by long-time African-American LGBT activist, author, and blogger, Alvin McEwen, for her attack on African-American and gay icon Bayard Rustin. The extremely anti-gay Alveda King, in a carefully-worded statement on Tuesday had attacked the NAACP for their decision to publicly support same-sex marriage, and in response to several bloggers, including The New Civil Rights Movement, the younger King wrote some rather ugly comments in a press release on Wednesday.
Master strategist Bayard Rustin was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s organizer for the 1963 March on Washington, and his right-hand man for many years, but because he was gay, he has been hidden from history. Only in recent years has Rustin, posthumously, been receiving due attention.
READ: Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Gay Strategist, Deserves Better
Alvin McEwen, author of Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Exposing the Lies of the Anti-Gay Industry, is an excellent historian and equally-gifted at setting the record straight.
In “Dear Alveda King, your lie about Bayard Rustin will NOT go unanswered!,” McEwen writes:
Dear Ms. Alveda King,
I am watched your “career” as an “activist” and a “leader” over the years with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. I was amused as to how you were suddenly anointed as a voice for the black community simply because you are Martin Luther King, Jr’s niece.
And I was a bit annoyed at your nasty attack on Coretta Scott King two years ago when you implied that you knew MLK’s heart better than her because you “had his DNA and she didn’t.”
And adds:
“The 21st century homosexual lobby likes to point to the professional relationship between my uncle Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bayard Rustin, his openly homosexual staffer who left the movement at the height of the campaign. Rustin attempted to convince Uncle M. L. that homosexual rights were equal with civil rights. Uncle M. L. did not agree, and would not attach the homosexual agenda to the 20th century civil rights struggles. So Mr. Rustin resigned.”I would like to know where you received your information concerning this claim and until you show this information, I feel safe in calling you out as a boldfaced liar.
Then slams his point home:
Ms. King, you like to talk about the so-called sin of homosexuality, but let me remind you that the Bible also says something against bearing false witness.
And between me and you, from one African-American to another, I would personally like to know just what constitutes you as a genuine leader in the black community?
To my knowledge, no one has taken the initiative to ask you that question, so I would like to. Do you really think that your relationship to one of the greatest American leaders of the 20th century makes you a leader?
I don’t think so. On my father’s side of my family, I am a distant cousin to the rapper Lil Bow Wow, but at no time have I rushed to a record company demanding a contract.
Ms. King, it takes more than familial connections to make one a leader. Allow me to school you on the qualities.
A leader sacrifices for others.
A leader does not seek the spotlight.
A leader works his or her fingers to the bone for a cause.
A leader inspires others.
A leader puts him or herself on the line more than once even though success of the cause may not be assured.
Bayard Rustin had all of these qualities. You have none of them. Ever since you have shown your face in the public arena, the only person you seemed to have cared about is yourself. You inspire no one. You do the least amount of work. And worst of all, none of your fame comes from anything you have done, but only due to the fact that you had the good fortune to be related to Martin Luther King, Jr.
If you didn’t have this familial relation, no one would care about anything you say.
So please stop lying to yourself as to your status and your impact. You have neither.
Game, set, match.
Alveda King, married and divorced three times, preaches regularly against rights for the gay community and against rights for women.
Wikipedia also notes:
She had two abortions and attempted to get a third one. When she became pregnant, she says her doctor, without the family’s knowledge, gave her an abortion. She was divorced soon after that. When she was pregnant in 1973, she went to Planned Parenthood and got a second abortion. Later, she wanted to get a third abortion, but neither the father nor her grandfather would pay for it.
On Tuesday, Alveda King’s book-promoting any-gay press release included this quote:
“Neither my great-grandfather an NAACP founder, my grandfather Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. an NAACP leader, my father Rev. A. D. Williams King, nor my uncle Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. embraced the homosexual agenda that the current NAACP is attempting to label as a civil rights agenda.
“In the 21st Century, the anti-traditional marriage community is in league with the anti-life community, and together with the NAACP and other sympathizers, they are seeking a world where homosexual marriage and abortion will supposedly set the captives free.”
Lovely.
Alveda King has in the past linked same-sex marriage equality to “genocide,†and for decades has fought to exclude the battle for LGBT rights from the civil rights movement her uncle embodied.
As we documented before, Alveda King in the past has said:
“To equate homosexuality with race is to give a death sentence to civil rights. No one is enslaving homosexuals…or making them sit in the back of the bus.â€
â€Homosexuality cannot be elevated to the civil rights issue. The civil rights movement was born from the Bible. God hates homosexuality.â€
As Alvin McEwen says, “the Bible also says something against bearing false witness.”
And, I imagine, hypocrisy.
By the way, Alvin McEwen is an excellent blogger. I hope you’ll read his work frequently.