Alberta Williams King, mother of Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in Atlanta in 1903 as the only child of Jennie Williams and Adam Daniel Williams, pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church. Alberta attended high school at Spelman Seminary and then enrolled in Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute, where she obtained her teaching certificate in March of 1924.
Before attending Hampton, Alberta met a young minister named Michael King. Shortly after completing school, Alberta and Michael announced their engagement during Sunday services at Ebenezer Baptist Church. Because the local school board did not allow married women in the classroom, Alberta Williams taught only briefly before her marriage on Thanksgiving Day 1926.
After their wedding, the newlyweds moved into an upstairs bedroom of the Williams' home on Auburn Avenue, where Martin Luther King, Jr. and his two siblings, Willie Christine and Alfred Daniel, were born.
After A. D. Williams’ death in 1931, Michael King succeeded his father-in-law as Ebenezer's pastor and changed his name to Martin Luther King. Alberta Williams King followed in her mother’s footsteps as a powerful presence in Ebenezer's affairs. She founded and trained the Ebenezer choir and served as organizer and president of the Ebenezer Women's Council from 1950 to 1962. She was also the church's organist from 1932 until 1972.
As a mother, Alberta worked diligently to instill a sense of self-respect within her three children. Martin Luther King, Jr. acknowledged his mother's positive influence on his life and moral development, deeming her "the best mother in the world." In a piece he wrote as a student at Crozer Seminary, he described his mother as being "behind the scene setting forth those motherly cares, the lack of which leaves a missing link in life." He remembered his childhood as one of harmony spent "in a very congenial home situation," with parents who "always lived together very intimately." "It is quite easy for me," King, Jr. wrote, "to think of a God of love mainly because I grew up in a family where love was central and lovely relationships were ever present." Alberta remained close to King, Jr. throughout his life. Although her soft-spoken nature compelled her to avoid the publicity that accompanied her son's international renown, she remained a constant source of strength to the King family, especially after King, Jr. was assassinated.
In 1974, as she played the organ during Sunday services at Ebenezer, Alberta Williams King was shot by Marcus Chenault, a twenty-one-year-old man from Ohio who claimed that "all Christians are my enemies." Alberta Williams King died later that day at the age of seventy-one.