Jeffery Shaun King is a left-of center political activist and social media personality. His 2014 Twitter-based coverage of the police-shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri has been credited with helping create momentum for the Black Lives Matter movement. 1
As a pastor in Atlanta, Georgia, King used social media as a mobilizing tool for religious and charitable projects, and to build a personal following. His online influence and contributions in publications such as the DailyKos and New York Daily News have raised his profile as an activist on racial issues in America.
King’s rising profile has come with criticism for his methods and rhetoric. In 2018, a Texas state trooper was exonerated by body-camera footage after King circulated false accusations that the officer had raped a black woman during a DWI stop. 2 During the 2020 civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, King controversially suggested that statues and depictions of a “white Jesus” constituted “racist propaganda and should be torn down as “a form of white supremacy.” 3 King also claimed in 2020 that a Facebook group of California law enforcement officers was plotting to kill him. 4
Throughout his religious, charitable, and political life, King has used his influence and charisma to raise significant funds for various projects. Several of those operations have failed within several years of their founding, and critics have accused at least two of King’s charitable efforts of significant financial and transparency issues. 5678
Early Life
King was born in 1979 in Franklin County, Kentucky and raised by his single mother from an early age. According to King, the white man listed on his birth certificate is not his biological father. King claims he has been told that his biological father is “a light-skinned black man,” and he has consequently identified as Black for most of his life. 9
In 1995, while attending Woodford County High School in Versailles, Kentucky, King was the victim of an assault that King claims was racially motivated. A police report described the incident as a one-on-one fight over a fellow student’s girlfriend and stated King suffered minor injuries. 10 However, King has contended the attack was carried out by a large group of students and that it left him with severe injuries requiring multiple surgeries. 11
King earned an undergraduate degree in history from Morehouse College, a private historically black men’s college in Atlanta, Georgia. While at Morehouse, he was awarded a scholarship through the Oprah Winfrey Endowed Scholars Program. King remained at Morehouse as a graduate research assistant under civil rights activist and history professor Alan Hornsby, Jr. until 2006. 12 13
“Facebook Pastor”
King’s penchant for social media outreach and online fundraising first came to light during his years in church ministry. In the early 2000s, he began attending the Total Grace Christian Center, where he connected with Bishop Johnathan Alvarado. 14 King would eventually become the webmaster at Total Grace and a campus pastor. According to his now-defunct personal blog, he was ordained as a pastor by Alvarado despite having not completed formal divinity training. 15 King’s archived LinkedIn page indicates he expected to earn a Master of Divinity degree in 2011, but this reference and all mentions of his employment at Total Grace have been deleted. 16 17
In 2008, King left Total Grace to found Courageous Church as lead pastor. He reportedly recruited over 600 people to attend the new church’s first service in downtown Atlanta. 18 Courageous Church’s attendance numbers and successful charitable fundraising campaigns initiated by King during his tenure led to local media calling him “the Facebook pastor.” 19 However, the young church struggled as King’s ambitious goals were met with opposition from attendees and leaders. He resigned as lead pastor in 2011, citing disagreements rising from a decision to veer away from “a traditional Sunday (worship) system.” 20 The church folded shortly after King’s departure. 21
Charity Campaigns
While pastoring Courageous Church, local media praised King for his charitable activities and fundraising campaigns. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution named him a “Holiday Hero” in 2009 for an online fundraiser to buy uniforms and toys for children at an elementary school where he had tutored while in college. 22
In 2010, a major earthquake caused severe damage in Haiti leading King to launch a new fundraising initiative under Courageous Church’s umbrella. “A Home in Haiti” was created to raise money for tents and a children’s center operated by the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission (NWHCM) that had been damaged in the earthquake. 23
With support from Democratic activist actress Eva Longoria, King developed a novel strategy to enlist celebrity influence for the project. Using eBay’s online giving platform, King’s “TwitChange” allowed celebrities to auction off an influential personal Tweet or social media interaction to the highest bidder. 24
King claimed the initiative raised over $1 million, but that amount was disputed by a NWHCM Facebook post reporting that $540,631.25 had been raised through the TwitChange campaign. 25 King conceded there would be difficulties converting auction pledges into actual donations. 26 However, transparency issues also arose due to how donations were collected.
A Home in Haiti’s website directed cash and check donations to a Courageous Church address and asked that checks be written to the church instead of the charity. 27 Furthermore, The Daily Beast reported online donations were received and disbursed by Courageous Church’s PayPal account, but NWHCM only received a $200,000 grant. 28
The TwitChange concept received accolades winning a Mashable award for Most Creative Social Good Campaign, but King claims he sold the company to a group of investors when he stepped down from Courageous Church in 2011. 29 30
Glowing media reviews from influences like Oprah Winfrey and transparency issues alike followed King’s subsequent project. 31 Using A Home in Haiti’s EIN, King reorganized the non-profit, which was rebranded as HopeMob, a crowdfunding operation designed to enhance social networking. A Forbes article reported the new initiative had raised over $5 million by 2013, but tax returns filed with the IRS showed only $1.05 million in contributions between 2012 and 2014. 32 In 2013, the organization distributed $198,000 in grants while King received over $160,000 in compensation. 33 34 According to filings, HopeMob distributed its remaining assets to Pure, Inc. another 501(c)(3) nonprofit, at the end of 2014. 35
Political Activism
In 2014, a police officer shot African-American teenager Michael Brown to death in Ferguson, Missouri, under initially disputed circumstances; the event and the demonstrations and later civil unrest that the shooting triggered served as a catalyst for King’s transition from philanthropy and religion into national political activism. King’s coverage of the incident, particularly his insinuation that Ferguson police lied about where Brown was killed, caught the attention of Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the left-of-center Daily Kos blog. 36 In October 2014, Moulitsas announced King was joining the Daily Kos as a contributor to focus on “police-state excesses.” 37 King published over 500 pieces in just over one year with the Daily Kos. 38 During this time, he also founded a “behind the scenes” advocacy organization to end perceived police brutality called Justice Together, which folded after only a few months in operation. 39
In October 2015, the New York Daily News hired King as a “Senior Justice Writer” to cover racial justice issues. While at the Daily News, King was accused by writers from the Daily Beast and other journalists of plagiarizing content in his columns. 40 A Daily News editor was reportedly fired for allegedly removing attributions from the pieces, but King the accusations were politically motivated because of former first daughter Chelsea Clinton’s position on the board of the Daily Beast’s parent company. 41 His Twitter account was also suspended for publishing a CNN employee’s personal information. 42 After two years at the Daily News, King took a position as a writer-in-residence at the Harvard Law School Fair Punishment Project. 43
In 2019, King partnered with activist Benjamin Dixon to recreate a modern media version of Fredrick Douglass’ abolitionist newspaper, The North Star. 44 The new outlet launched with an aggressive fundraising campaign promising “a full news website, an iPhone & Android app, four brand new podcasts, online video news broadcasts, and so much more.” Celebrity philanthropists Sigourney Weaver and Robert Smith were reported as early, high-level subscribers. However, after just one year, the project had failed to gain traction and 14 employees remained on The North Star staff. 45
Influence
A 2016 study conducted by the Center for Media and Social Impact at American University’s School of Communications credited King with having an outsized influence in spreading the word about the death of Michael Brown. 46 The report titled “Beyond the Hashtags” named King’s handle as one of the most-referenced activists of color in Black Lives Matter communities on Twitter in the months following the Ferguson protests. 47 TIME, which named King as one of the 25 most influential people on the internet in 2018, reported King only had around 100,000 Twitter followers at the time of Brown’s death. 48 As of July 8, 2020, King had 1.1 million Twitter followers, 2.4 million Facebook followers, and 3.6 million Instagram followers. 49 50 51
In 2019, King enlisted the help of his social following to track down the shooter of Jazmine Barnes, a 7-year-old Black girl in Houston, Texas. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzales (D) publicly credited King with providing the tip that led to the arrest of the driver of the vehicle involved in the shooting Eric Black, Jr. 52 Larry Woodruffe, the alleged shooter, was charged later; both defendants in the case are Black. However, before Black’s arrest, King posted a picture of Robert Cantrell, a white man, implying he was the shooter and sparking allegations of a hate crime. 53 Cantrell’s family reported receiving threats of violence as a result of King’s post, which was removed after Black was arrested in connection with the crime. 54
Real Justice PAC
King has also directed his leveraged his influence into direct political activity through the Real Justice PAC, which he co-founded 2018. 55 The PAC focuses on district attorneys’ races with the aim of electing prosecutors who support changes in policing practices and the elimination of bail. 56 A former Los Angeles County District Attorney criticized the candidates supported by Real Justice for prioritizing social reform ideology over the duties of their offices. 57 Cari Tuna, a California philanthropist and wife of Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, is the organization’s top donor, having contributed over $2.5 million personally and through her non-profit fund. 58
Controversies
Investigative reporting conducted by the right-leaning Daily Caller has questioned the veracity of King’s claims about his 1995 assault in high school. 59 A 2013 article in Forbes reports that King required several surgeries after the attack and the incident was one of Kentucky’s first registered hate crimes. 60 King has also described the attack as “a brutal beating by a white mob.” 61 However, according to the former City of Versailles police officer who conducted the investigation, the attack was never classified as a hate crime. Instead, the investigative report characterized the event as a “one-on-one fight” over a previous confrontation King had with the alleged assailant’s former girlfriend. 62
In 2015, King publicly addressed allegations that he had misrepresented his racial identity. The allegations centered on King’s birth certificate that listed Jeffery Wayne King, who is white, as his father. 63 However, King has stated that his mother, who is also white, informed him that his “actual biological father is a light-skinned black man.” King claims he never knew his biological father and has always identified as “black.” 64 The police report from the 1995 assault lists King’s race as “white,” but King has explained the form did not contain a “biracial” option. 65 King’s wife Rai has also described her husband as “ethnically ambiguous.” 66
In 2018, Sherita Dixon-Cole accused Texas state trooper Daniel Hubbard of “forcefully groping” and sexually assaulting her during an arrest for driving while intoxicated. 67 USA Today reported King’s post of her claim was shared over 50,000 times on social media. 68 As a result, another trooper named Jarrod Hubbard received thousands of death threats online due to his surname. 69 When police body-camera footage from the arrest exonerated the arresting officer, King was forced to retract the social media posts; he blamed the mistake on information he had received from the alleged victim and her attorney. 70
During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd, King posted a Tweet suggesting that “white European” depictions of Jesus should be torn down along with other statues that had become targets for vandalism. In a series of tweets, King claimed statues, murals, and stained glass windows of “white Jesus” amounted to “white supremacy” and “racist propaganda.” 71 In a subsequent tweet, King alleged he had received over 500 death threats in response. In a tweet, King claimed, “Christian whiteness has always been violent.” 72
King claims that the daily death threats he has received for years come mostly from “anonymous sources” and appear “designed to intimidate” rather than “imminent threats.” 73 In June 2020, he wrote that a friend alerted him to a private Facebook page that contained comments King characterized as “openly planning and plotting my assassination.” The Long Beach Police Department released a statement confirming former law enforcement officers were identified in the thread, but stated, “none of the individuals in the article are current LBPD officers.” 74
References
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- May, Ashley, “A woman said a Texas state trooper sexually assaulted her. Her lawyer apologized after seeing body cam video,” USA Today, May 24, 2018. Accessed July 8, 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/05/24/body-cam-video-exonerates-texas-state-trooper-accused-sexual-assault/639858002/
- May, Ashley, “A woman said a Texas state trooper sexually assaulted her. Her lawyer apologized after seeing body cam video,” USA Today, May 24, 2018. Accessed July 8, 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/05/24/body-cam-video-exonerates-texas-state-trooper-accused-sexual-assault/639858002/
- Dedaj, Paulina, “Trooper with same name as officer falsely accused of sexual assault fights Shaun King’s posts,” Fox News. May 24, 2018. Accessed July 8, 2020. https://www.foxnews.com/us/trooper-with-same-name-as-officer-falsely-accused-of-sexual-assault-fights-shaun-kings-posts
- King, Shaun, “When the “victim” you fought for turns out to be the victimizer: Sherita Dixon-Cole and the painful consequences of a false report of sexual assault and police misconduct,” Medium.com, May 23, 2018. Accessed, July 8, 2020. https://medium.com/@ShaunKing/when-the-victim-you-fought-for-turns-out-to-be-the-victimizer-sherita-dixon-cole-and-the-painful-cec6ca8f3670
- Betz, Bradford, “Shaun King: Statues of Jesus Christ are ‘form of white supremacy,’ should be torn down,” Fox News, June 22, 2020. Accessed July 8, 2020. https://www.foxnews.com/media/shaun-king-jesus-christ-statues-white-supremacy
- Toone, Stephanie, “After comments about dismantling Jesus statues, Shaun King says he received death threats from ‘white Christians’,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. June 24, 2020. Accessed June 8, 2020. https://www.ajc.com/news/shaun-king-says-monuments-images-jesus-should-come-down-because-they-are-form-white-supremacy/zlLNCWq1X0UVlHiZxjtDCJ/
- King, Shaun, “A Private Law Enforcement Group on Facebook is Literally Plotting to Kill Me,” Medium.com, June 25, 2020. Accessed July 8, 2020. https://medium.com/@ShaunKing/shaun-king-a-private-law-enforcement-group-on-facebook-is-literally-plotting-to-kill-me-f1e916c90bf8
- O’Kane, Caitlin, “Police investigating after ex-officers allegedly posted threats against activist Shaun King,” CBS News, June 26, 2020. Accessed July 28, 2020. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shaun-king-black-lives-matter-police-investigating-officers-threat-kill/