“So, even though we don’t understand why the incident happened in its implications, and even though I have had some moments of real despair.
It is probably natural that we should be more dear to each other.”
“Third, the love which we now share with our little children seems newer and stronger than ever and compensates more than enough for any loss that we might have sustained. “Second, I have been amazed at the strength that has come pouring into me from some source outside myself.” I say they attacked my children because I was holding one child in my arms, and had the other inside of me. “First, I cannot forget the pure, unadulterated hate on the faces of the two persons (policemen) who attacked me and my children. “What my mother gave up and sacrificed for the cause, for the government to come back and apologize, it would of meant a lot,” King said.įor her part, Marion, who rarely spoke about the incident, wrote a reflection as part of a pictorial history book of the Albany Movement published in 2000. He also thinks such an action would have offered some level of reprieve for his mother, who passed away in 2007. He added he believes it would also allow some to look at their government and more confidently feel it is actually a “just” government.
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King said an apology now could be powerful, because Camilla officials recognizing what happened could show other institutions how to stand up, highlight an injustice, and acknowledge a past wrong. Jonathan King and his family plan to return to Camilla next summer - the 60th Anniversary of the violence against their mother - to continue to highlight the issue. The city council listened to the Kings but did not take up the issue. During a protest from Albany to Camilla, Whites along the route shot and killed a dozen protestors and wounded dozens more. The massacre occurred decades before - in 1868 - after Blacks had gained the right to vote in Georgia but a number of newly elected Black state legislators had been expelled. In September they went to the Camilla city council requesting that the city apologize, share the story of the assault and erect a monument memorializing the many people who have fought for civil rights in Camilla, not just Marion King, especially those who were victims of the Camilla Massacre. King, his brother Edward Dubois, sister Abena and the rest of the family are hoping to change that. The municipality of Camilla has never apologized for the violence. “The focus is on my mom, but over many generations you see how this (traumas) has hurt many Black families along the way.” “Many of the people who were in those poor neighborhoods and didn’t have the wealth or resources to deal with racism, those are the folks I’m really concerned about,” King said. King said that as painful as it was, his family was better positioned than many to cope with it in part because his father was a prominent businessman and citizen. Jonathan King, now a retired school administrator, said he wishes people would be more mindful of the way these traumatic events have historically impacted Black children. A year later John Lewis would mention the attack on Marion while speaking at the March on Washington.įor the Kings the pain persisted for decades. halted planned demonstrations in Albany and called for a day of penance after news of the event drew an angry, violent reaction in Albany. The assault drew widespread attention in Albany and beyond. Marion and Slater cried at home as they processed the night’s events, and the trauma was heightened a few months later when Marion suffered a still birth. Police officers shoved Marion to the ground then kicked her in the stomach and beat her until she lost consciousness.Įventually Marion regained consciousness, gathered up her small children and drove home. Jonathan King recalls that shortly after arriving, things took a dangerous turn.