King attended Morehouse College, the same school his father attended. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. King served as an elected commissioner of Fulton County, Georgia from 1987 to 1993.

In 1997, King was unanimously elected to head the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a civil rights organization founded by his father. At the helm, King's relationship with some board members deteriorated. Chairman Claud Young briefly suspended King in 2001 citing absence from the office and erratic communication. He left the SCLC in January 2004 to take over the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change from his brother, Dexter Scott King.