Peggy King Jorde is the principal of KING JORDE Culturals and a global authority on African burial ground memorialization. 

KING JORDE Culturals is a multidisciplinary consulting practice supporting marginalized & underrepresented communities, design professionals, developers, civic authorities, and various stakeholders in cultural heritage protection, community engagement, and memorial design. 

She is a Harvard University Loeb Fellow recognized for her extraordinary activism in the movement to save New York City’s African Burial Ground. She served under three New York City Mayors. Harvard Magazine’s article “Life By Design” chronicles King Jorde’s journey from her native Albany, Georgia, to her fellowship pursuits at Harvard School of Design. Peggy is no stranger to activism. She is the daughter of the late legendary African American Attorney C.B. King, Sr., who defended Dr. Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights Movement. He was the first Black man since the U.S. Reconstruction era to run for governor of Georgia, paving the way for Stacie Abrams. Today, a U.S. Courthouse is named in his honor. After being named Special Adviser to New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins, King Jorde was appointed Executive Director for the African Burial Ground Federal Steering Committee, during which she prepared the master plan for memorializing the historic landmark. Due to her advocacy and commitment to community and cultural heritage protection, Peggy left city government to consult full-time. Her appointment as Director of Memorialization enabled her to lead the national design competitions, resulting in the United States’ first African Burial Ground National Monument & Interpretive Center honoring enslaved and free Africans in New York City. After research was completed at Howard University, she was a pivotal contributor to the planning committee for the repatriation ceremony for more than 400 ancestral remains reburied into New York City.