Yolanda Renee King has spoken out after casting her first-ever ballot in this year’s midterm elections.
The 18-year-old, who is the only grandchild of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., turned 18 in May and voted on Tuesday, November 3 in Atlanta, Georgia. She marked the milestone by partnering with When We All Vote, a nonprofit focused on boosting voter participation, to document her trip to the polls on Instagram.
The teenager posted multiple photos showing her wearing an “I voted” sticker, walking to and from the polling station, and posing outside with her parents, Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King. The organization shared the images alongside a message celebrating her participation.
“My grandparents had their fight. My parents had theirs. This one is mine. People bled for this right. I’m not going to waste it,” Yolanda said in the post.
The When We All Vote caption highlighted her family lineage, noting she is the granddaughter of both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And Coretta Scott King. It framed her vote as drawing on their legacy while she forges her own path.
Yolanda also had direct words for other first-time voters still considering whether to head to the polls. “Empowered is an understatement. The baton is in our hands. Polls are still open, so go use it,” she voiced.
In a separate social media post, Yolanda penned: “This is for my grandparents. Thanks mom and dad for leading me!”
Her parents’ influence on her civic engagement dates back to childhood, she revealed in a recent interview. She said they would take her to the polls regularly, which left her eager to participate herself. “They would take me to the polls, and so I [would]… See that growing up. And then I remember feeling really sad because I realized, ‘Oh, I can’t participate in the voting,’ and so then that would make me really sad, and they’d always give me the ‘I just voted’ sticker. So I’d go around parading around and pretending like I just voted,” she said.
That early exposure to the voting process, combined with the symbolic gesture of receiving stickers she had not earned, shaped her understanding of civic duty long before she became eligible herself. The experience of watching her parents participate while she remained sidelined instilled both frustration and motivation.
Yolanda’s vote arrives decades after her grandfather helped secure the Voting Rights Act of 1965, landmark legislation that outlawed discriminatory practices preventing Black Americans from exercising their right to vote. Her grandmother, Coretta Scott King, continued that advocacy work for decades following her husband’s assassination in 1968. The couple’s youngest son, Martin Luther King III, has maintained the family’s public engagement on civil rights issues, and his daughter now represents the third generation of Kings to participate directly in the democratic process.
Yolanda continues her own emerging activism work following her first vote.