*A Walmart on North Henry Blvd. in suburban Atlanta rests on land where Martin Luther King Sr.’s family farmed as sharecroppers.
A biography of Dr. King by author Jonathan Eig revealed the significance of the Stockbridge store location. As confirmed by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, this led to a historical being placed at the store’s location. It was unveiled at a ceremony attended by Atlanta civic leaders and members of the King family, including Mayor Anthony S. Ford, City Councilman Alphonso Thomas, Martin Luther King Jr.’s nephew Isaac Farris Jr., and former Atlanta Mayor and U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young.
“We stand here today on really sacred ground,” said Eig, who also attended the event and signed copies of his new biography about Martin Luther King, Jr. called “King: A Life.”
When Eig began researching King’s family for this book, he was unable to uncover where his ancestors were enslaved.
“Those ancestors were treated as property,” he said. “People and names didn’t matter to the government record keepers.”
It wasn’t until after the Civil War that the King family’s name appeared in public records. It was Henry County where they worked, AJC reports.
“By 1910, they were on this very land right here, and it was owned at the time by a white family that employed the Kings to farm cotton and other crops,” he said, per AJC.
“It was in Atlanta that he began to remake himself and to remake history,” Eig said of Dr. King. “That’s why this land that we stand on today should be recognized as a historical place.”
Councilman Thomas noted that Stockbridge is “the ancestral home of the King family,” he said.
Farris agreed, calling Dr. King “one of the greatest individuals that lived.”
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