Dr. Alveda C. King disagrees with the recent announcement from the NAACP in which they decided to support gay marriage. Niece of civil rights pioneer, Martin Luther King Jr., King says that homosexual marriage is not a civil rights matter.

"Neither my great-grandfather an NAACP founder, my grandfather Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. an NAACP leader, my father Rev. A. D. Williams King, nor my uncle Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. embraced the homosexual agenda that the current NAACP is attempting to label as a civil rights agenda," King wrote in a statement.  

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Dr. King is the Senior Pastoral Associate and Director of African-American Outreach for Priests for Life and Gospel of Life Ministries.

"In the 21st Century, the anti-traditional marriage community is in league with the anti-life community, and together with the NAACP and other sympathizers, they are seeking a world where homosexual marriage and abortion will supposedly set the captives free," King added.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the oldest civil rights group established to maintain justice for all people and eliminate racial discrimination.

The organization professed their support of gay marriage two weeks after President Obama expressed his position on the matter.

"The mission of the NAACP has always been to ensure political, social and economic equality of all people," Roslyn M. Brock, chairman of the Board of Directors of the NAACP, said. "We have and will oppose efforts to codify discrimination into law."

"Civil marriage is a civil right and a matter of civil law," Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the organization, added.

"The NAACP's support for marriage equality is deeply rooted in the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and equal protection of all people. The well-funded right wing organizations who are attempting to split our communities are no friend to civil rights, and they will not succeed," he continued.

However, Rev. Bill Owens, the organizer of the Coalition of African-American Pastors, disagrees with the NAACP. He and other leaders gathered recently against the comparison of homosexual marriage and the civil rights battles for African Americans.

"The group of black clergy and civil rights leaders say it is time to turn the tide against the 'hijacking' of the civil rights movement," Owens said.

"A 50-year-old can only read about the struggles and protests of the civil rights era, but some of us who are older have the battle scars to prove it. And the rights we fought so hard to acquire did not include same-sex marriage," he added.

While some Black evangelical leaders have supported Obama in his approval of gay marriage, not all pastors have been swayed.

"President Obama is leading the way on gay marriage for what he hopes will be a large following of black pastors and their congregations," Dan Delzell, a pastor in Nebraska stated.

"Many black pastors are not following his lead. The vast majority of pastors in the black community do not want the children in their church being taught that homosexual behavior is no longer sinful," he continued.

Nevertheless, more and more African Americans are expressing support of same-sex marriage. According to a recent poll by ABC News/Washington Post, 59% are in support, compared to 41% a short time ago.