Why Bernice King Sees Her Uncle’s Unsolved Drowning in Nolan Wells Case

For Bernice King, the unanswered questions surrounding Nolan Wells’ death have a painful familiarity. They take her back 57 years to the death of her uncle and Martin Luther King Jr.’s only brother, the Rev. A.D. King, who was found dead in his swimming pool in July 1969.

“There are details that make Nolan’s family’s questions painfully familiar,” King wrote. “Both were strong swimmers.” She pointed to similarities in the physical evidence: “Uncle A.D. had a bruised forehead and no water in his lungs. Nolan also had bruising on his head and no water in his lungs or airways. His cause and manner of death remain undetermined.”

A.D. King’s death is a largely forgotten chapter of the King family story–one that, decades later, still carries unanswered questions.

The Rev. Alfred Daniel Williams King was more than Martin Luther King Jr.’s younger brother. According to the King Institute, he was a minister and civil-rights activist in his own right, graduating from Morehouse College like his older brother and working alongside Martin during some of the movement’s most consequential years. A.D. helped lead demonstrations in Birmingham. He later became pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta after MLK’s 1968 assassination.

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Then, just months later in July 1969, A.D. was found at the bottom of the swimming pool at his home. He was 38 years old.

The official determination was accidental drowning, according to official reports. But the explanation never fully settled the matter for his family. A.D. was known to be a strong swimmer, and his widow, Naomi King, questioned whether his death could have been an accident.

Naomi told the Seattle Times, “There was no water in his lungs. He was in the fetal position…He had a bruised forehead. Rings around his neck. And he was in his underwear.” She concluded, “He was murdered.”

MLK was targeted due to his leadership within the civil rights movement, and A.D. continued to carry the King legacy, turning the target on himself. According to reports, he was arrested in 1960 during a lunch sit-in. A.D. and his wife also escaped a bombing at their family home.

Over five decades later, Bernice King is drawing attention to the same questions– not to declare that A.D.’s death and Wells’ death were the same, but to highlight what she sees as a disturbing familiarity in the circumstances.

We previously told you Wells’ death was ruled a drowning after he disappeared during a July Fourth trip to Horn Island with friends. His family, with the help of civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Rev. Al Sharpton, continues to demand full transparency to bring closure and truth to what happened to the teenager. His death has sparked national debates over how the justice system handles the deaths of Black people and the underlying racial tensions, particularly in the South.

“I pray Nolan’s family receives a thorough, transparent investigation and the answers they deserve,” King continued on X. “I pray they do not have to live with decades of unanswered questions as my family has.”

That is the legacy of A.D. King’s death: not a definitive alternative explanation, but a family still asking what happened.

The Wells family has been plagued by similar looming questions, even after a Mississippi grand jury declined to bring formal indictments. In both cases, the unanswered questions are now part of the story– one that too many Black families have been forced to carry.

“Grief is already a heavy burden,” King said. “Families deserve truth, and their loved ones deserve to be remembered for the fullness of their lives.”