Shaun King facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Shaun King
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King in 2023
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| Born |
Jeffery Shaun King
September 17, 1979 |
| Alma mater | Morehouse College (BA) Arizona State University (MA) |
| Occupation |
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| Political party | Independent (2016–present) Democratic (until 2016) |
| Movement | Black Lives Matter |
| Spouse(s) |
Rai King
(m. 2001) |
| Children | 5 |
Jeffery Shaun King (born September 17, 1979) is an American writer and activist. He uses social media to promote causes of social justice, particularly Black Lives Matter in the United States.
King was raised in Kentucky and received his undergraduate degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. After briefly teaching high school civics, he became a pastor. In 2008, he founded the Courageous Church in Atlanta and led it for four years. During this time, King launched a number of internet campaigns, including HopeMob.org, which he co-founded with Chad Kellough. He later received a master's degree from Arizona State University. As a writer, King has previously been a regular contributor to Daily Kos, the New York Daily News, and The Young Turks. In 2018, King co-founded the Real Justice PAC, and launched The North Star website. In 2020, he founded the non-profit group Grassroots Law Project.
On numerous occasions, King has faced accusations of fiscal mismanagement and of raising money from donors that does not reach its intended recipients. In addition, the Grassroots Law Project has been questioned for its high compensation paid to King and his associates, as well as its lack of progress on its main initiative. In 2023, King was involved in further controversy when he falsely claimed to have worked behind the scenes with Hamas and Qatar to secure the release of Israeli hostages during the Israel–Hamas war; the family of the released hostages said that he had "lied" and "fabricated his involvement".
Early life and education
Jeffery Shaun King was born in Franklin, Kentucky and raised in Versailles, Kentucky. Although his birth certificate names Jeffery Wayne King, a white man, as his father, King stated in 2015 that his mother told him his actual biological father is a light-skinned black man. By second grade, King's mother Naomi Kay (Fleming) King raised King and his brother as a single parent. King attended Huntertown Elementary School and Woodford County High School.
King has stated that he was the victim of racism and hate crimes while growing up in Kentucky. He told reporters of a time that a pickup truck full of youths attempted to run him over with the vehicle on school property. King recalls that, after reporting the incident to school authorities, the youths were protected rather than punished. King later said that a second assault occurred, wherein "a dozen self-described 'rednecks'" beat him, and claimed the injuries caused him to miss a portion of two years of high school due to multiple spinal surgeries. King characterized the assault as a racially motivated hate crime. In 2015, media outlets questioned King's account of the assault, and, citing interviews with the investigating detective Keith Broughton and police reports on the case, characterized the fight as a one-on-one between King and another boy over a girl, where King sustained minor injuries. Broughton reportedly interviewed multiple witnesses, including a teacher who broke up the fight. A band teacher, two fellow students from King's high school, as well as King's wife, posted their recollection of the event to Facebook, backing King's account.
King attended Morehouse College, a private, historically black men's college in Atlanta, Georgia, where he majored in history. In 1999, King was elected president of the student government association. Midway through his education, he had to take a medical leave. Upon his return, he was named an Oprah Winfrey Scholar by Morehouse. In 2018, King earned a master's degree in history from Arizona State University.
Career
After graduation, King was a high school civics teacher for about a year and then worked in Atlanta's juvenile justice system. King left teaching and worked as a pastor at Total Grace Christian Center in DeKalb County, Georgia. King relates that he had been inspired to become a pastor when he was in high school; while King was recovering from injuries after an assault, he was regularly visited by his best friend's father, who was a pastor. He recalled growing up without a father figure and said, "I just found myself so impacted by this man coming to visit me that I wanted to be like him.” In 2008, King founded a church in Atlanta called "Courageous Church". He made use of social media to recruit new members and was known as the "Facebook Pastor". In 2012, King resigned from the Courageous Church, citing personal stress and disillusionment.
Journalism
King has written extensively about his experiences as a biracial person, as well as the Black Lives Matter movement, which gained prominence during the events that followed the shooting of Michael Brown. Shaun wrote an article analyzing the Brown crime scene, and argued that the evidence suggested that officer Darren Wilson's life was not in danger during the shooting.
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King became a contributing blogger for the politically liberal website, the Daily Kos, in September 2014. On October 2, 2015, King joined the New York Daily News as a senior justice writer, where he focused on reporting and providing commentary on social justice, police brutality and race relations. On December 28, 2016, Cenk Uygur announced that King had been hired as a political commentator for The Young Turks. King left the Daily News in 2016.
In 2019, King launched the crowdfunded website The North Star, calling it an online “revival” of the anti-slavery newspaper of the same name, claiming that he had the support of the relatives of Frederick Douglass (the original paper's editor). The site has articles, podcast episodes, and videos for a subscription fee, with a focus on social justice issues, including police brutality and mass incarceration. The Daily Beast reported that the site did not deliver all the features that were promised during the fundraisers, such as a daily video broadcast and an app. King said he had been “overzealous” with the project, and that he should have listened to advisors who had told him that his plans for the site were too ambitious. After leaving The North Star, historian and former editor-in-chief Keisha Blain accused King via Twitter of being "a liar & a fraud", stating that she was prevented from saying as much because of a non-disclosure agreement. Another former employee claimed that they and others had to fight for months to receive the health care benefits they were promised, while King claimed that all employees received full health care coverage. Former co-workers at The North Star described King as a poor fiscal manager, absent, and incompetent, according to The Daily Beast.
Politics
King left the Democratic Party after the 2016 election, alleging corruption and lack of neutrality during the 2016 primaries. In 2018, Shaun King expressed disdain for Kamala Harris and said he did not intend to support her or Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic primaries due to their positions on criminal justice. He later changed his view as he said her stance has changed, tweeting, "I am incredibly proud to see a brilliant Black woman, and HBCU grad, chosen as a Vice Presidential nominee.”
Personal life
King is married and has five children; three of his children were conceived with his wife and two were adopted. He also has had foster children, nieces, and nephews living with him. In March 2024, on the eve of Ramadan, King and his wife Rai King formally converted to Islam from Christianity in the presence of Palestinian-American imam Omar Suleiman.
