On Sunday morning, June 30, 1974, Alberta Christine Williams King, 69, was shot and killed while playing the organ at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. She had just finished playing The Lord’s Prayer when a young man stood and opened fire, shouting that the congregation was serving a false god. Mrs. King was struck in the right side of her head and later died at Grady Memorial Hospital. A church deacon, Edward Boykin, was also killed and a retired schoolteacher, Jimmie Mitchell, was wounded.

Police arrested 23-year-old Marcus Wayne Chenault, who said he considered Black ministers a menace and had targeted Martin Luther King Sr., shooting Mrs. King because she was closer. At trial his lawyers presented an insanity defense; he was convicted and sentenced to death. The King family did not support the execution.