Preston King

Who is Preston King?

Preston Theodore King is an American academic and African-American civil rights activist who moved to the United Kingdom in 1961, facing charges for draft evasion at home for refusing to report for his conscription until an all-white draft board addressed him as "Mr.", the same way that it addressed white draftees. He was pardoned by Bill Clinton in 2000.

King is the son of Clennon Washington King, Sr. He studied at the London School of Economics in the late 1950s, and at the University of Maryland in 1961, after which he taught alternately in England and Africa, at Keele University, the University of Ghana, the University of Sheffield, the University of East Africa, and the University of Nairobi. In 1976 he moved to the University of New South Wales in Australia, where he became dean of his school, and in 1986 he moved again, to Lancaster University, where he again chaired his department. Following his return from exile in 2000, he taught in the U.S. at Emory University and Morehouse College. He has also held numerous visiting positions.

He married Jewish social justice activist Murreil Hazel Stern in 1963. Their daughter is the Labour party politician Oona King, Baroness King of Bow.