LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s voice doesn't seem to lose strength as it echoes through the decades, and neither does people's appetite to tell stories from his life. A new one will be soon be appearing in a book from former Kentucky State Senator Georgia Powers.
"I would never say I was, 'in love,' with Dr. King and he was not in love with me," owers said.
Ralph Abernathy's memoir, 'And the Walls Came Tumbling Down,' was the first time anyone publicly mentioned an affair between Powers and Dr. King. Abernathy, who worked closely with King, referenced a, "a black woman legislator," from Kentucky. Powers the first and only black female legislator to serve in Kentucky's Senate.
Powers then released her own book on the subject called, "I Shared the Dream." Her latest book mostly takes place in a bedroom, but doesn't talk about their relationship.
The Day Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was Killed, Five Friends, Five Hours, Five Steps to Infamy, talks about the five hours she spent with Dr. King and three other leaders in room 201 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis the day Dr. King was assassinated.
"I just moved into that room late the night before, and he probably figured it wasn't bugged. Yet," she said about why Dr. King asked to have the meeting in her room.
She said the group waited in the room to learn if a judge would remove an injunction, and let them hold a march on April 5th. The group included King, Ralph Abernathy, A.D. King, and Lucreatia Ward - from Kentucky.
"This book is about the conversation the five of us had in that room that day," she said. "They talked about some preachers - imitating some of them. You know, they loved to that. King was a master of that - he could imitate other black preachers."
Andrew Young, a member of King's staff, eventually showed up and told them the injunction was removed. Powers claims King asked her to ride with him to a dinner they planned to attend that night.
She got ready, and stepped outside her room into the courtyard of the Lorraine at the time they planned to leave.
"I could hear Dr. King and I could see him up on the balcony. And I kept thinking, 'I wish he would just shut up and come on.'" she said. "He was talk, talk, talk talking. I was hungry - all we'd had was potato chips and soda that day so I was ready to go eat. Just as I approached the door, I heard someone scream, 'Oh my God he shot Dr. King."
She went upstairs to the balcony.
"I went up those stairs, and when I looked in [room] 306," she said. "Andrew Young - there were two of them trying to get an ambulance. I stepped in - didn't say anything - and stepped back out. And then I walked out and I'm standing there by myself over Dr. King."
"He had his shirt and tie on," she said. "And that bullet severed his tie. And the knot in his tie was sticking up. Now, not too many people saw that. Because when EMS got there they took the shirt and everything off."
Powers claims she started to get into the ambulance with Dr. King's body, but Andrew Young stopped her. All of King's confidants, except Abernathy, have called Powers a liar.
"They were being so protective of King's reputation. But truth is truth. Whatever it is," she said. "They were in denial. They knew I was there."
Powers doesn't think Americans should be concerned about King's personal life.
"We were just close friends and liked to work for the same end," Powers said. "Very often when you're working with somebody - you know - at some point - you may become intimate."
So although her new book does center around them in a bedroom - it's not about their relationship. She focuses on the ideas and a conversation that guided her and a movement for a lifetime.
"I said I - need to be some place where I can make policy," she said.
Powers is currently working with her publisher to decide on a release date.
