A prominent Black Lives Matter activist has responded to allegations that he has lied about his race, saying his accusers have “racist intentions” and are trying to “divide and conquer.”
Shaun King’s essay for Daily Kos says the man listed on King’s birth certificate as his father is not his biological father.
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King also refuted accusations that he lied about being the victim of a racially motivated attack.
He said his family has suffered for having his name dragged through the mud.
“It is horrifying to me that my most personal information, for the most nefarious reasons, has been forced out into the open and that my private past and pain have been used as jokes and fodder to discredit me and the greater movement for justice in America,” he said.
“I resent that lies have been reported as truth and that the obviously racist intentions of these attacks have been consistently downplayed at my expense and that of my family.”
King rose to prominence as an activist in the wake of the shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014.
Conservative publications, including Breitbart, published a series of articles this week claiming King actually has two white parents and lied about his race to qualify for a scholarship from Oprah Winfrey to attend Morehouse College, a historically black school in Atlanta.
King has said he has a white mother and black father. Investigators reportedly found that the man listed on his birth certificate as his father was white.
The publications also cast doubt on King’s claim that he was the victim of a racist assault while in Kentucky, noting that the police report from the incident marks his race as white.
King has said he needed several surgeries and missed over a year of school after the assault.
