King became leader of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in March 1931 after the death of Williams.[3] With the country in the midst of the Great Depression, church finances were struggling, but King organized membership and fundraising drives that restored these to health. By 1934, King had become a widely respected leader of the local church. That year, he also changed his name (and that of his eldest son) from Michael King to Martin Luther King after a period of gradual transition on his own part.[4] He was inspired during a trip to Germany for that year's meeting of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA). While visiting sites associated with reformation leader Martin Luther, attendees also witnessed the rise of Nazism. Whilst the BWA conference issued a resolution condemning antisemitism, the senior King gained deepened appreciation for the power of Luther's protest.[5]
Alberta King was shot and killed on June 30, 1974, at age 69, by Marcus Wayne Chenault, a 23-year-old black man from Ohio who had adopted the theology of the Black Hebrew Israelites.[13] Chenault's mentor, Rev. Hananiah E. Israel of Cincinnati, castigated black civil rights activists and black church leaders as being evil and deceptive, but claimed in interviews not to have advocated violence.[14] Chenault did not draw any such distinction, and actually first decided to assassinate Rev. Jesse Jackson in Chicago, but canceled the plan at the last minute.
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. Chenault said that he shot King because "all Christians are my enemies," and claimed that he had decided that black ministers were a menace to black people. He said his original target had been Martin Luther King Sr., but he had decided to shoot his wife instead because she was near him. He also killed one of the church's deacons, Edward Boykin, in the attack, and Mrs. Jimmie Mitchell, a retired schoolteacher, suffered a wound to the neck.[12] “It seemed like I was watching a scene from a bad movie play out" King's daughter would later recall in her 2009 memoir Through It All.[15]
King and Boykin were rushed to the nearby Grady Memorial Hospital.[1] Officials announced King was "barely alive" when she arrived at the hospital, while Boykin was pronounced dead on arrival.[1] King died shortly afterward from a gunshot wound to the right of her head.[1]