On the morning of June 30, 1974, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta was the scene of a deadly attack during a service. Deacon Edward Boykin, a 69-year-old Black man who had attended the church for thirty-nine years, was shot and killed when a 23-year-old visitor, Marcus Wayne Chenault, Jr., rose from a pew armed with two revolvers and began firing into the congregation while Alberta Williams King played the organ. Mrs. King was also killed and another woman injured; parishioners subdued Chenault after he emptied his weapons.

Boykin had worked 32 years as a chauffeur for the family of the former publisher of the Atlanta Constitution and was a respected church member. He and his wife, Lois, had no children. Chenault was arrested at the scene and charged with two counts of murder; he told investigators he was on a mission from God to kill the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., and said he shot Mrs. King because she was closer. His lawyers raised an insanity defense.

Are there members of the congregation or family who remember Edward Boykin and can share more about his life or that morning?