30 Jan 2019
Martin Luther King Jr's family home to become visitor attraction
BY Luke Cloherty
The family home of assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr in Atlanta, US, is to be opened to the public.
The National Park Foundation, the National Park Service and the King family have all agreed to open the house as a visitor attraction to allow members of the public see where a 20th-century icon lived.
The house will become part of the Martin Luther King Jr National Historical Park and was bought by the National Park Foundation – which is the nonprofit partner to the National Parks Service – from King’s widow Coretta Scott King on 8 January. It was then immediately transferred to the National Park Service.
"African-American history is US history and the family home of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Mrs Coretta Scott King is a touchstone for us all to better understand our shared heritage," said Will Shafroth, president of the National Park Foundation.
Bernice A King, one of King’s two daughters, added: "We are very pleased to have worked with the National Park Foundation to ensure that the family home that my siblings and I grew up in will be open and available to the public.
"My brothers and I are honoured to have fulfilled my mother's wish to allow future generations to know the story of our dad as a father, a husband, a minister and a civil rights leader."
The home King was raised in was also bought in Q4 2018 by the National Park organisations and will be added to tours based on the man’s life and work along with the family home.
"The addition of the homes where Dr King was born and where he raised his family with Coretta Scott King provides the National Park Service sacred spaces to more fully tell the story of Dr King's life and legacy," said National Park Service deputy director P Daniel Smith.
"Thanks to the efforts of the National Park Foundation and the generosity of the King family, these areas are now among the many civil rights sites that are preserved as part of the National Park System and will be accessible to the American people in perpetuity."
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