She was shot and killed in the church by 23-year-old Marcus Wayne Chenault six years after the assassination of her eldest son Martin Luther King Jr.[1] Alberta Christine Williams was born on September 13, 1904.

[4] She taught for a short time before their Thanksgiving Day 1926 wedding, but she had to quit because the local school board prohibited married women from teaching.

[4] After their wedding, the newly married couple moved into an upstairs bedroom at the Williams family home, which is where all three of their children were born.

Martin Luther King Jr., wrote an essay while he studied at Crozer Seminary stating that she "was behind the scenes setting forth those motherly cares, the lack of which leaves a missing link in life.

[11] She served as choir director for nearly 25 years, leaving for only a brief period in the early 1960s to accompany her son and assist him with his work.

[4] She was also active in the YWCA, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

[13] Alberta King was shot and killed on June 30, 1974, age 69, by Marcus Wayne Chenault, a 23-year-old Black man from Ohio.

[15] Two weeks later, he set out for Atlanta, where he shot Alberta King with two handguns as she sat at the organ of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

While Alberta was playing "The Lord's Prayer" on the church organ, Chenault stood up and yelled, "You are serving a false god," and fired his gun at her.

[12] He also killed one of the church's deacons, Edward Boykin, in the attack and wounded retired schoolteacher Jimmie Mitchell in the neck.