He was married on June 17, 1950, to Naomi Ruth Barber King (born November 17, 1931), with whom he had five children: Alveda, Alfred Jr., Derek, Darlene, and Vernon.

[3] In August, after a bomb exploded at the home of a prominent black lawyer in downtown Birmingham, outraged citizens, intent on revenge, poured into the streets.

While rocks were being thrown at gathering policemen and the situation escalated, King climbed on top of a parked car and shouted to the rioters in an attempt to quell their fury: "My friends, we have had enough problems tonight.

King was in the room directly beneath Martin's at the Lorraine Hotel when the gun blast went off, and when he saw his brother lying mortally wounded, he had to be restrained by others, due to the shock and overwhelming emotion he was experiencing.

After his brother's assassination in April 1968, there was speculation that King might become the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

King, however, made no effort to assume his deceased brother's role, although he did continue to be active in the Poor People's Campaign and in other work on behalf of SCLC.

After Martin's death, King returned to Ebenezer Baptist Church, where, in September 1968, he was installed as co-pastor.

[5][8][9][10] However, it is likely that the stress of his brother's high-profile activist work and the trauma of his assassination exacerbated A.D.'s heart problems (a rumor disclaimed by his wife Naomi Ruth Barber King), of which there was a family history: three of A.D.'s children later died of heart attacks—Alfred Jr. in 1986, Darlene at age 20 in 1976,[11] and Vernon at age 49 in 2009; his father, Martin Luther King Sr., also died of a heart attack in 1984; his niece, Yolanda King, died at age 51 in 2007.

But he had wanted to stay up and Alveda left him sitting in an easy chair, staring at the TV, when she went off to bed...