As ABC7 continues to honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as part of our FACEism series, in this story, a family member reflects on the assassination of King and describes what that moment was like through her own personal recollection.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was only 39 when he was assassinated. His death sparked riots in the streets of America and the world witnessed the loss of a civil rights icon.
"There was the news that Uncle Martin had been shot," she recalled. "My sister immediately started screaming."Her father, Ralph Abernathy, was instrumental in orchestrating the Civil Rights movement. For a decade, Ralph and King were partners. They were inseparable, fighting for change in a racist world.
She recalls how King's wife, Coretta, called Donzaleigh's mother asking to meet her at the airport as soon as she got the news. "I just cried. Then we went to the Hanley Brothers Funeral Home and we dropped the body off. The casket was there and it was open and then daddy took me up there. You could see where the cheek had blown off and where they put it together and put the makeup on him. He was hard. He wasn't soft anymore, and I kissed him."Fame does not diminish the raw pain. Donzaleigh felt every bit of it, and so did her dad, paralyzed with despair.
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