Bernice King | |
|---|---|
 King in April 2014 | |
| Born | Bernice Albertine King March 28, 1963 |
| Education | Spelman College (BS) Emory University (MDiv, JD) |
| Occupation | CEO of The King Center |
| Parent(s) | Martin Luther King Jr. Coretta Scott King |
| Relatives | Alberta Williams King (grandmother) Martin Luther King Sr. (grandfather) Yolanda Denise King (sister) Martin Luther King III (brother) Dexter Scott King (brother) Alveda King (cousin) Edythe Scott Bagley (aunt) Christine King Farris (aunt) |
Bernice Albertine King (born March 28, 1963) is an American inactive lawyer, minister, and the youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.[1] She was five years old when her father died in 1968. In her adolescence, King chose to work towards becoming a minister after having a breakdown from watching a documentary about her father. King was 17 when she was invited to speak at the United Nations. Twenty years after her father was assassinated, she preached her trial sermon, inspired by her parents' activism.
Her mother had a stroke in 2005 and, after she died the following year, King delivered the eulogy at her funeral. A turning point in her life, King experienced conflict within her family when her sister Yolanda and brother Dexter supported the sale of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change. After her sister died in 2007, she delivered the eulogy for her as well. She supported the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in 2008 and called his nomination part of her father's dream.
King was known for her advocacy against gay rights, in contrast to the rest of her outspokenly pro-LGBT family, through the 2000s and early 2010s. She later seemed to retract these views in 2015.
King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 2009. Her elder brother Martin III and her father had previously held the position. She was the first woman elected to the presidency in the organization's history, amidst the SCLC holding two separate conventions. King became upset with the actions of the SCLC, feeling that the organization was ignoring her suggestions, and declined the presidency in January 2010.
King became CEO of the King Center only months afterward. King's primary focus as CEO of The King Center and in life is to ensure that her father's nonviolent philosophy and methodology (which The King Center calls Nonviolence 365) is integrated in various sectors of society, including education, government, business, media, arts and entertainment and sports. King believes that Nonviolence 365 is the answer to society's problems and promotes it being embraced as a way of life. King is also the CEO of First Kingdom Management, a Christian consulting firm based in Atlanta, Georgia.
- ^ See, Garrow, David J., Bearing the Cross,(New York: William Morrow & Co., 1986), p. 236