Christine King Farris, sister of Martin Luther King Jr., dies at 95
Christine King Farris, who was the last living sibling of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and wrote two children’s books on the civil rights leader’s life, died June 29 in Atlanta. She was 95.
Her niece, the Rev. Bernice King, announced the death but gave no specific cause or other details.
For decades after her brother’s assassination in 1968, Ms. Farris worked along with his widow, Coretta Scott King, to preserve and promote his legacy. But unlike her high-profile sister-in-law, Ms. Farris’s activism was often behind the scenes.
“She may not have always been on the line of the march, but that was true with a lot of the heroes of the civil rights movement,” said Marcellus Barksdale, a history professor at Morehouse College, in a 2009 interview with the Associated Press. “Because of the luminescence of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King, Christine kind of got dimmed by that, but she was no less important.”
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Ms. Farris was born Willie Christine King on Sept. 11, 1927, in Atlanta. She was the first child of the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Christine Williams King.
Ms. Farris helped Coretta Scott King build the King Center and helped to teach Martin Luther King Jr.’s code of nonviolent resistance. For years, her regal, dignified presence was a mainstay at the ecumenical service celebrating her brother’s birthday at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her grandfather and father also preached and where Ms. Farris remained a member.
“No stranger to adversity, Aunt Christine used the tragedies of the assassinations of her mother and brother to fight for change in America,” wrote her nephew, Martin Luther King III, in a tweet.
Ms. Farris graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta in 1948 with a degree in economics on the same day Martin Luther King Jr. earned his degree in sociology from Morehouse, also in Atlanta.
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A decade later, Ms. Farris returned to Spelman as director of a freshman reading program in 1958. She was later a professor in education and served as director of the Learning Resources Center. She retired in 2014.
In 1960, she married Isaac Newton Farris. The couple had two children, Angela Christine Farris Watkins and Isaac Newton Farris Jr.
Ms. Farris wrote two children’s books about her life, “My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up With the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” and “March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World.” In 2009, she wrote a memoir, “Through It All: Reflections on My Life, My Family and My Faith.”
Ms. Farris often shared stories about her brother as a normal child and young man to make him and his achievements more accessible to people.
“They think he simply happened, that he appeared fully formed, without context, ready to change the world,” she said.
Washington Post staff contributed to this report.
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