By Linda Jones
The greatest contribution a father can make to society is raising a child he can be proud of. Out of hundreds of famous father-son duos, two are profiled here. In both instances, the fathers were raised dirt-poor and the sons chose to follow the father in their career, be it minister or movie star.
Martin Luther King Sr.
The legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. is [hopefully] known by every schoolchild in our land, but the accomplishments of his father are not taught. The minister-father was born as Michael King in 1899, the eldest son of nine children in a sharecropper family. Growing up in the Baptist church, Michael decided to become a preacher after hearing several ministers preach about racial inequities in America. He headed to Atlanta, where his sister Woodie was living and boarding with Rev. A. D. Williams. King began a long, long courtship of Williams’ daughter Alberta, long because her family encouraged him to finish his education and become a preacher. King completed high school and began studying for a ministerial degree at the Morehouse School of Religion, meanwhile preaching in several black churches in Atlanta. After eight years of courtship, he married Alberta in Ebenezer Church in 1926 and within four years, three children were born.
Martin Luther King Jr.
After Williams died in 1931, King Sr. was chosen as the leader of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. Despite the Depression, he increased the financial footing of the church and brought in more members and by 1934 was already a widely respected leader. During those years, he changed his name to Martin Luther King. (His famous son was born Michael Luther King Jr. but changed his name also.) He would remain as pastor of that church for four decades, preaching, broadcasting on a religious radio station and influencing his son with his “noble example.”
King Jr. recounted in his autobiography that he was once riding in the family car when a police officer stopped them and addressed King Sr. as “boy.” The senior King pointed to his son and replied, “This is a boy, I am a man; until you call me one, I will not listen to you.”
King Sr. was a major figure in the civil rights movement in Georgia, serving as head of the NAACP in Atlanta and of the Civic and Political League. He led the fight for equal teachers’ salaries in Atlanta and was a leader in ending Jim Crow laws in Georgia. (He had refused to ride on Atlanta’s bus system since the 1920s because of the blatant segregation.)
Kirk Douglas
After the murder of his son in 1968, the elder King continued to serve as pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church until 1975 and was instrumental in building a coalition of black and white voters to help Jimmy Carter win the nomination; he was chosen to deliver the invocation at both the 1976 and 1980 Democratic National Conventions. He died in 1984, age 84.
His son would one day win the Nobel Prize in Peace (1964) and the admiration of all Americans. A national holiday would be named in his honor.
The Douglas father–son team has achieved fame, fortune and notoriety, but has also quietly worked for humanitarian causes. Father Kirk was a Goodwill Ambassador for the U.S. State Department and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1981) for his efforts. Two years later the Jefferson Award was given to him; the French government also honored him with the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. The handsome screen idol with the cleft chin earned almost as many awards for his humanitarian work as screen honors.
One of Kirk Douglas’ bravest acts lost him several good friends. During the height of the Cold War, the 1950s – 1970s, he starred in the spectacular epic film Spartacus (1960). A Hollywood screenwriter named Dalton Trumbo was one of the “Hollywood Ten” who had been black-listed because of liberal political views during the McCarthy “Red Scare” hysteria in the 1950s. Trumbo had returned to screenwriting but always wrote under a pseudonym. Douglas firmly insisted Trumbo
Michael Douglas
be given credit on-screen for his contributions; this marked the beginning of the end of blacklisting policies, which had already destroyed many lives and careers. When Steven Spielberg presented Douglas with his honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement, Spielberg publicly thanked him.
When Kirk’s son Michael chose acting as his career of choice, his famous father opposed the idea because of the fickle nature of the business. In retrospect the business has treated Michael well. He has won two Oscars, one for Best Actor and one for Best Picture, amassed a fortune estimated at more than $2 million and married a beautiful actress exactly 25 years younger. Michael too has embraced humanitarian causes and was named a UN Messenger of Peace in 1998.
