Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 26, 1995 TAG: 9501260113
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOUISVILLE, KY. LENGTH: Medium
Georgia Powers writes of her yearlong relationship with King in her new autobiography, ``I Shared the Dream.'' It is in line with previous reports - allegedly started by the FBI - that the civil rights leader had affairs.
The Rev. Ralph Abernathy, King's lieutenant in the civil rights movement, created a furor five years ago when he suggested in his memoirs that King cheated on his wife.
Abernathy, who died in 1990, also wrote of a liaison King had the night before his death with ``a black woman ... a member of the Kentucky Legislature,'' but did not identify the woman by name. The book was widely criticized by other civil rights activists.
Powers apparently is the first woman to say she had an affair with King. She retired in 1988.
``We tried to keep our relationship as quiet as possible but his staff members knew about it,'' Powers said in an interview Wednesday.
``It was not the greatest part of my life but it was something that happened in my life.''
Their final encounter, she said, was on April 3, 1968, the night before he was shot to death while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. She had a room there at the time of the assassination.
King's widow, Coretta Scott King, and her son, Dexter, were reported to be in South Korea and unavailable for comment.
In her autobiography, the 71-year-old Powers writes that the relationship with King began in March 1967, more than three years after they met at a Louisville civil rights march.
``The relationship between Martin Luther King Jr. and I began with mutual admiration,'' she wrote. ``Gradually, our attachment grew stronger until it passed beyond camaraderie into intimacy.''
The book does not indicate how often she and King were together.
by CNB