THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 18, 1995 TAG: 9501180412
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Once I interviewed Martin Luther King Jr. - almost.
He came to Richmond in the late 1950s. Curious about a person of such courage, I sought him out. He was remote, unresponsive.
Now, his father, Daddy King, was as laid-back as an active volcano. Sent to Atlanta in 1976 on another story, I dropped by Ebenezer Baptist Church to see him.
One of 10 children of a South Georgia sharecropper, he came to Atlanta and worked by day and earned his divinity degree at night. He founded Second Baptist Church in College Park and served seven rural churches as well until his father-in-law invited him to join him as associate pastor at Ebenezer.
Did Daddy King recognize early that his son would excel?
``No,'' he said, ``you never know that, but I knew he was unusual. He was far above his age. He stayed right under me and imbibed so much and I'm happy I led the kind of life I did, for him. He went with me everywhere he could.
``He'd tell his mama, `Mother dear' - that's what he called her then - `I'm going with Daddy.' He'd go with me when I went to preach in churches, and he'd just sit there, a little fellow, and imbibe. He'd just sit there and imbibe-e-e everything.
``He didn't put all his time in playing like the other kids. He'd budget what he was doing. He always loved his books, and he could read at an early age.
``It just come from him. He started from a little fellow, holding books, and he kept it up. When his sister, two years older, began school, he was only 5, but he went with her.
``One day they asked him how old he was, and he was smart and said 5, but they said you got to be 6 to stay in school - and sent him home.
``He told his older sister he was going to keep up with her. He read her books and finished Morehouse College at 15 at the same time she did. He kept saying he was going to be a lawyer.
``In his senior year in college he went with other students to work on a farm in Connecticut and did their devotions for them, and that's how he found himself as a preacher.''
Daddy King's voice dropped to a whisper as if he were in a reverie. ``His mother called him there one day to see how he was doing, and he said, `Mother dear, I want to preach.'
``And she said, `WHAT?' ''
King's breath caught in a laugh.
``And he said, `How do I get a trial sermon?'
``And she said, `See your daddy.'
``And he said, `I don't have to see the deacons?'
``And she said, `No, your daddy's the one to see. Talk with him.'
``So we talked, and I said, `You're sure, boy, you know what you're talking about?'
``And he said, `I know.'
``And I said, `You ain't gon' make no money.'
``And he said, `I know.'
``And so he came home and they gave him a hearing and that summer he preached a sermon.
``And from there he went.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Daddy King
by CNB