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Shaun King (activist)

Shaun King
Shaun King at Suffolk University 7.png
Shaun King at Suffolk University in Boston, 2017
Born Jeffery Shaun King
(1979-09-17) September 17, 1979 (age 37)
Franklin County, Kentucky, U.S.
Nationality American
Alma mater Morehouse College
Occupation
  • Writer
  • activist
  • entrepreneur
  • pastor
Movement Black Lives Matter
Spouse(s) Rai King
Children 5
Parent(s) Naomi Fleming

Jeffery Shaun King (born September 17, 1979) is an American writer and civil rights activist. He is noted for his use of social media to promote religious, charitable, and social causes, including the Black Lives Matter movement. He is the senior justice writer for the New York Daily News, and a political commentator for The Young Turks. Previously, he was a contributing writer for Daily Kos.

King grew up in Versailles, Kentucky. He was raised by his white mother and white adoptive father, Jeffrey King. King grew up believing what she later confirmed to him: that his biological father was a light-skinned black man. According to a local police detective, those who knew him were aware of his biracial heritage: "Anyone from around here who knew him knew he was mixed." King attended Huntertown Elementary School and Woodford County High School.

King attended Morehouse College, a private, historically black men's college in Atlanta, Georgia, where he majored in history. Midway through his education, he had to take a medical leave. Upon his return, he was named an Oprah Winfrey Scholar by Morehouse. Oprah scholars are given financial support and are required to maintain their grade point average and do community service. King fulfilled his community service requirement by tutoring and mentoring students at Franklin Lebby Stanton Elementary School in Atlanta. After graduation in 2002, King was a research assistant for Morehouse history professor Alton Hornsby Jr.

After graduation, King was a high school civics teacher for about a year and then became a motivational speaker for Atlanta's juvenile justice system. He was then a pastor at Total Grace Christian Center in DeKalb County, Georgia. 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".


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