James Albert King
James Albert King was the father of Martin Luther King Sr. and paternal grandfather of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Christine King Farris.
James Albert King was born in 1864 and was probably of Irish and African descent. His father, Nathan King's, birthplace has been speculated variously as several places outside of the South, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Ireland. King married Delia Linsey in 1895, and they both worked as sharecroppers, in Henry County and Clayton County in Georgia and then Stockbridge, Georgia where they settled and where their son, Martin Luther King Sr. was born in 1899. King struggled with alcoholism and disapproved of his son and wife attending church. When his son Martin became involved in an altercation with a white property owner the family went into hiding for a period. King died in 1933.
