Alveda King Takes Big-Name Place at Tea Party

By Diane Loupe

WeNews correspondent

Friday, September 3, 2010

Rev. Alveda King's Tea Party allegiance grabbed headlines last weekend when she joined the Glenn Beck rally on the anniversary of her uncle's famous "dream" speech. It also made her an even more polarizing figure in the abortion-rights struggle.

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Controversial Billboards

"Black and Unwanted" is the second part of the "Endangered Species" billboard campaign sponsored by anti-abortion groups. King's anti-abortion stance gained national attention earlier this year when she became a visible supporter of a controversial billboard campaign that started in Atlanta and said abortions threatened black children with extinction. "Black children are an endangered species," the billboards said.

A new campaign, "Black and Unwanted," accuses abortion rights proponents of preventing black babies from being adopted by opposing interracial adoption.

Sixty of these billboards were erected in central Georgia in Savannah, Augusta and Macon during the summer, said Ryan Bomberger of the Radiance Foundation, creator of the campaign. The billboards also went up in Little Rock, Ark., in June and July.

Bomberger adds that the billboards are now up in Bryan-College Station, Texas, near the place "where Roe v. Wade started."

Ross called the billboards "a new weapon in an old war. They're trying to shame black women out of choices."

Candidates endorsed by Tea Party leaders such as Beck and Sarah Palin are widely expected to play a potent role in the midterm elections in November, when Democratic control of Congress will be at stake.

One sign of that came earlier this week when a little-known Alaskan candidate for the Republican nomination for senator, Joe Miller, backed by Palin, unseated incumbent Lisa Murkowski in a close race.

But King, who describes herself as an author, actress, singer and doting grandmother, disavows any openly political role.

"I'm not involved in politics anymore," she recently told a reporter for Salon.com. "Make sure you note that."

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Diane Loupe, a freelance writer and editor based in Decatur, Ga., teaches communications at the Interactive College of Technology in Chamblee, Ga.

For more information:

RH-Reality Check columnist Pamela Merritt on Dr. Alveda King:
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2010/08/31/pondering-mountaintop

Alveda King talks to Salon ahead of her planned speech at Glenn Beck rally.:
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/27/alveda_king_glenn_beck

Alveda King's comments on abortion at the Priests for Life website.:
http://www.priestsforlife.org/africanamerican/blog/

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