Christine King Farris couldn’t force herself to get off the plane.
Who could blame her really? The older sister of Martin Luther King Jr. had rushed to Memphis to retrieve the body of her brother after he had been gunned down a day earlier on April 4, 1968.
She didn’t want to step foot on the soil where her brother was murdered.
!["I said 'Coretta, M.L. has already preached his eulogy," said King's sister Christine King Farris. "He did that 'drum major' speech back in February...When Martin got [home] he said, 'I might have preached my eulogy.' "](https://www.ajc.com/resizer/v2/7SUTH4UVTCVEPUMKUFGWCDWHSY.jpg?auth=7f85136b072f01f21125f16c2b88bf6a351ed17373c6dad11ca4ab3995c6b747&width=1000&smart=true)
Credit: Pouya Dianat / AJC
Credit: Pouya Dianat / AJC
In a gripping 2008 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Farris, the last living King sibling, sat down to talk about the last days of her brother and the immediate impact that his death had on the family.
Part of a project marking the then 40th anniversary of King’s death, Farris was one of 13 people that The AJC sat down with to record their stories and shed light on the life and death of the civil rights leader.
We are re-releasing these interviews as a 13-part podcast hosted by Multimedia Journalist Ryon Horne.
Along with Farris, Tyrone Brooks, Earl Caldwell, Andrew Young, Martin Luther King III, Xernona Clayton and Bernice King, and those who have left us — including Billy Kyle, Juanita Abernathy, Ralph David Abernathy III, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, Congressman John Lewis, Kathryn Johnson — each gives us a glimpse, through their relationships with King, inside the making of history.
Each episode will be made available through the Unapologetically ATL newsletter, but you can also subscribe to “The Voices of King” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode.
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