Atlanta police arrested Laneisha Shantrice Henderson for pouring gasoline on Martin Luther King Jr.’s childhood home and attempting to burn it down before tourists visiting from Utah stopped her and held her for police.

Henderson, 26, was arrested and charged with 2nd-degree attempted arson when she poured gasoline on the home at 501 Auburn Ave., N.E., Atlanta. She was also charged with interference with government property because the home is a National Historical Park.

Years ago, I visited the home. A box of Kellogg’s cornflakes, known then as “the breakfast of champions,” was on the kitchen counter.

While Henderson poured gasoline, tourists stopped her. Police placed her under arrest and took her to Grady Detention Center for evaluation and then to Fulton County Jail. 

She is shown dressed in a NAVY uniform on the deck of an unidentified aircraft carrier. Her father said she suffered from mental health issues. 

Her extreme behavior was similar to that of Izola Curry, who stabbed Martin Luther King Jr.

On September 20, 1958, Curry, a housekeeper, attended a book signing in which Dr. King promoted his book “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” which retold the history of the Montgomery bus boycott. 

Curry demanded to know, “Are you Dr. King?” He acknowledged he was before Curry stabbed him in the chest. He survived but just barely.

An advertising executive at the book signing restrained Curry until police arrived. 

Curry also had a pistol hidden in her bra. She claimed that King was mixed up with communists, and that is why she wanted to kill him. It sounds like something borrowed from FBI Director J. Egar Hoover’s playbook.

Curry was placed in a Jamaica, Queens, New York nursing home until she died on May 7, 2015.