Yolanda King Featured On WPSX, Feb. 16

2-9-98
University Park, Pa. -- On a special "Take Note," the public affairs program from WPSX-TV, Channel 3, host Patty Satalia talks with Yolanda King about her life, her father's legacy, and her role in making "the dream" a reality. Recorded during her recent visit to Penn State as part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration, the interview airs at 6:45 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 16.

The oldest child of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, Yolanda King is a trained actress, producer, and director and is committed to using her talents in the service of humanity.

Yolanda King is a self-proclaimed "...one hundred percent, dyed-in-the-wool, card-carrying believer in the dream." Asked if her dream is the same as her father's, she responds, "I define the essence of my father's mission as the creation of a society, of a world, where each and every child can simply be the best they can be. And this is what I have tried to do in my work, to encourage that kind of growth, that kind of completeness in people."

Yolanda King demonstrates her sense of perspective by saying, "I can't walk in my father's footsteps. They're too big; I'll fall in and break my neck!"

Yolanda King was 12 years old when her father's life was taken by an assassin's bullet. She says, "People said that I should hate James Earl Ray [the man convicted of assassinating Dr. King], but I never could. I was angry at a country, a society who could create someone who could destroy my father, but I never really hated James Earl Ray because I came out of a tradition that was lived so beautifully...". Yolanda King grew up surrounded by a family of Christian ministers who lived what they preached, "Meet hate with love."

"Take Note" on Channel 3 is made possible by grants from Shepherd's Book Centers, The Nittany Lion Inn and by the annual support by members of WPSX-TV.

**gp**