CAMILLA, Ga. (WALB) - More than 60 years after Marion King was beaten by Camilla police, newly released federal files have renewed calls for accountability. Her family says records alone won’t do and is demanding a formal apology from the city of Camilla.

King was six months pregnant on July 23, 1962, when she and approximately 30 other community members delivered food and clean clothes to demonstrators at the Mitchell County jail. She was pushed to the ground and kicked.

King’s housekeeper’s teenage daughter, Ella May Young, was among those being held in jail for protesting for voting rights. Her son, Jonathan, who was just 5 years old at the time, and his sister witnessed the attack. What Jonathan thought would be a joyous day turned out to be nothing short of a nightmare.

“She was knocked down by two cops, and it was at that time that I’m seeing my mother on the ground, being pummeled, unconscious and being kicked on both sides of her stomach. As a kid, it was horrifying,” Jonathan King said.

Two months later, when King went in to have the baby, the baby died.

Jonathan King said the incident was never discussed, the family suppressed the trauma, similar to how many Black communities dealt with such incidents at the time.

“I remember the day that I went to the hospital to pick up my mother. We were expecting the baby. That was a happy time for me. I was excited that we would have another. I was going to have a sister or brother,” Jonathan King said. “But when my mother gets in the car, there’s no baby.”

Jonathan King said he called Phoebe Putney Hospital to ask what happened to the baby, but was told all records were destroyed.

“I’m saying to myself, ‘What? You destroyed all of those records?’ That doesn’t even make any sense to me,” he said.

King approached the city of Camilla in 2013, asking for an apology but was dismissed. He returned in 2021 with family and supporters from Albany, Georgia, but was dismissed again.

The newly released federal files reveal that one of the deputy sheriffs involved in the attack killed two more innocent Black people after hurting Marion King. The FBI knew this, but allowed the man to stay in his job for 20 to 30 years. No one has been indicted.

Read the full Marion King files below:

Senator Jon Ossoff recently mentioned Marion King’s case in front of the U.S. Senate, calling for all such cases to be opened and examined. Ossoff established the Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board to ensure these cases are looked at and resolved.

“It’s time for the city of Camilla to apologize, not just to my mother and to my family, to apologize to all of the families that they victimized,” Jonathan King said. “My hope is that the city officials that are in there today will do the right thing.”

King said he reached out to the families of the two officers involved to discuss what happened, but so far has received no response. He remains hopeful someone will reach out.

Marion King was born in Valdosta, Georgia, and became valedictorian of her class at Dasher High School. She attended Spelman College and then the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in physical therapy. She was one of the first Black physical therapists to be hired in Georgia.

King met her husband, Slater King, in Albany, Georgia, around 1956. They married and had three children. Her husband was vice president and later president of the Albany Movement, working alongside his brother, Attorney C.B. King, to bring about integration in Albany.

King was a civil rights activist alongside her husband. The Albany Movement was groundbreaking, and when various African-American organizations came under its auspices, change began to happen. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Albany and went to jail with them.

In 1964, all schools in Albany became desegregated because of their work. Jonathan King was one of the first students to desegregate Highland Elementary School in 1964, along with his cousin Peggy King and three other children.

Marion King died in 2007, while in heart surgery. Her son said she forgave the officers who attacked her in 1962, not after 20 or 30 years, but immediately.

“My mother forgave those for what they did to her. Can you imagine doing what they did and then killing the baby? She still forgave them,” Jonathan King said. “And I have forgiven them. I think my family has forgiven them. But they’re going to have to forgive themselves.”

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