Alberta Christine Williams King (September 13, 1904 – June 30, 1974) was Martin Luther King Jr.'s mother, married to Martin Luther King Sr. She played a significant role in the affairs of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. She was shot and killed in the church by 23-year-old Black Hebrew Israelite Marcus Wayne Chenault six years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Life and career Alberta Christine Williams was born on September 13, 1904. Her parents were Reverend Adam Daniel Williams, at the time preacher of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and Jennie Celeste (Parks) Williams. Alberta Williams graduated from high school at the Spelman Seminary, and earned a teaching certificate at the Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute (now Hampton University) in 1924. Williams met Martin L. King (then known as Michael King), whose sister Woodie was boarding with her parents, shortly before she left for Hampton. After graduating, she announced her engagement to King at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. She taught for a short time before their Thanksgiving Day 1926 wedding, but she had to quit because the local school board prohibited married women from teaching. After their wedding the newly married couple moved into an upstairs bedroom at the Williams's family home, which is where all three of their children were subsequently born. The King family lived in the home until King's mother's death from a heart attack in 1941, when Martin Jr. turned 12 years old. In 1980 the home was designated a National Historic Site by Congress. The house the family subsequently moved to was located nearby (it has since been torn down). The King's first child, daughter Willie Christine King, was born on September 11, 1927. Michael Luther King Jr. followed on January 15, 1929, then Alfred Daniel Williams King I, named after his grandfather, on July 30, 1930. About this time, Michael King changed his name to Martin Luther King Sr. Alberta King worked hard to instill self-respect into her children. In an essay he wrote at Crozer Seminary, Martin Luther King Jr., who was always close to her, wrote that she "was behind the scenes setting forth those motherly cares, the lack of which leaves a missing link in life." During this period King continued her studies at Morris Brown College, receiving a BA in 1938. King founded the Ebenezer choir and served as church organist from 1932 to 1972. Her