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bernice king
'Don't Just Quote Him': US Agencies, Politicians Under Fire on MLK Day
"It's that day of the year where people who don't know anything about MLK, and would hate him if he were alive today, post the one or two MLK quotes they know."
Jan 15, 2024
U.S. politicians, agencies, and departments provoked intense criticism on Monday—Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States—for sharing select quotes from the civil rights icon while ignoring his messages about important issues including militarism, poverty, and racism.
King—who was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee—would have celebrated his 95th birthday on Monday.
His daughter, Bernice King,
wrote on social media Sunday: "Dear politicians/political influencers: When you evoke my father this #MLKDay, remember that he was resolute about eradicating racism, poverty, and militarism. And about corrective justice work. Don't just quote him. Encourage and enact policies that reflect his teachings."
With that call, MLK Jr.'s daughter shared a video clip of her father speaking out against the Vietnam War.
The Pentagon was among the departments that tried to honor King on social media, claiming that "his dream of equality resonates in our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and justice. Together, we strive for a nation that embraces unity and progress."
The U.S. Department of Justice—whose agencies include the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)—also joined in on the federal holiday, sharing a related speech U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland delivered last week.
The FBI also continued to ignore annual calls to "sit this one out," given its history of spying on King and trying to convince the civil rights leader to kill himself.
Democratic President Joe Biden, who is seeing reelection this year, faced criticism after saying: "Today, we reflect on the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and recommit to honoring his vision. It's up to us to march forward choosing democracy over autocracy and a 'Beloved Community' over chaos—to take up Dr. King's mantle and make his dream a reality."
Al Jazeera journalist Rami Ayari was among the critics who responded to Biden by highlighting U.S. support for Israel, including its devastating war on Gaza, which has killed over 24,000 Palestinians and triggered mounting allegations of genocide.
"Consider the words of MLK Jr. on apartheid in South Africa while the U.S. funds and enables Israeli apartheid: 'In South Africa today, all opposition to white supremacy is condemned as communism, and in its name, due process is destroyed. A medieval segregation is organized with 20th-century efficiency and drive. A sophisticated form of slavery is imposed by a minority upon a majority which is kept in grinding poverty. The dignity of human personality is defiled; and world opinion is arrogantly defied,'" said Ayari. "And world opinion is arrogantly defied... Sound familiar?"
Far-right U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also sparked backlash for selectively quoting King online.
Other congressional leaders under fire for their MLK-related posts include Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.).
@RepAndyBiggsAZ Well... \n\n-You tried to overturn a presidential election. \n-You wanted to undermine our nation's founding document. \n-Your party works hard to keep white supremacists happy.\n-You repeat baseless conspiracy theories.\n-You want to help the wealthy and connected while removing help\xe2\x80\xa6— (@)
Meanwhile, progressive U.S. Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) suggested Monday that considering the significant power of Congress and the executive branch, they should not merely pay "lip service to the ideals of King and eradication of the three evils he spoke of—poverty, militarism, and racism."
"When politicians cite MLK quotes while pursuing policies that target Black [people] at home and abroad, it reads as performative," said the Black congresswoman. "After the end of affirmative action, unaddressed police violence, families struggling to make ends meet, and escalating war, we have work to do."
"We are in the midst of humanitarian crises in Sudan and the [Democratic Republic of Congo]. Ones that our weapons are directly responsible for in Palestine and Yemen. Claiming MLK's legacy while contributing to the suffering of people of color abroad is shameful," Lee continued. "It's long past time for an honest accounting of Dr. King's legacy, and a recommitment to fight for the freedom from poverty, from white supremacy, and from excessive militarism—whether it's the police in our communities or the conflicts we engage in abroad."
Sanitizing Dr. King's legacy is a deliberate act. It erases what he fought for \xe2\x80\x94 racial and economic equality \xe2\x80\x94 and obscures the U.S. government's campaign to destroy him and undermine the civil-rights movement.\n\nJoseph Torres writes as we honor #MLK: https://t.co/KZYWUD1YuL— (@)
State leaders also elicited passionate responses to their online messaging about King.
Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones (D-52) is one of two young Black men whom GOP state House members expelled last year—though voters sent him and Rep. Justin Pearson (D-86) back to the chamber in special elections.
After the Tennessee House Republican Caucus shared a post about the civil rights leader, Jones called out the hypocrisy but also urged his GOP colleagues to "spend more time studying the work of Dr. King."
In response to Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt's MLK post, Aaron Baker, who teaches social studies at a public school, said that "it is my job as a teacher to develop the critical skills in students sufficient to [recognize] that this is a gross reimagining of history and a pernicious abuse of political power."
Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones noted that Stitt has issued an executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs at agencies and public universities as well as signed a bill restricting educational instruction on race, which led to his being ousted by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission.
GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was also slammed for his post about King, with critics pointing to conditions and policies under the far-right governor's reign, from book bans to immigration-related comments and actions.
"A reminder that Abbott's rhetoric was cited in the El Paso massacre shooter's manifesto found after he brutally murdered over 20 people in an act of white nationalist violence," said Ari Sawyer, a U.S. border researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Despite apologizing at the time, Abbott has since, in word and deed, perpetuated that racist violence."
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'Incredible': Central Park Five Exoneree Yusef Salaam Declares Victory in NYC Council Primary
"I was 15 years old when I was run over by the spiked wheels of justice. And here I am now taking that same platform and turning it into a purpose, trying to take my pain and doing something about it."
Jun 28, 2023
Yusef Salaam—one of the Central Park Five teenagers who spent years behind bars before being exonerated for a rape they did not commit—declared victory Tuesday night in his Democratic primary race for a New York City Council seat representing Harlem and other parts of Upper Manhattan.
Although the outcome of Tuesday's contest may not be officially finalized for days due to New York City voting rules, with more than 99% of votes counted, Salaam leads state Assemblymember Inez Dickens, his closest competitor in a crowded contest for the 9th Council District seat, by more than 2,700 ballots, according to the city's Board of Elections.
The 49-year-old poet, activist, inspirational speaker, and father of 10 children is all but guaranteed to win November's general election in the overwhelmingly Democratic district.
"Started from the bottom, now I'm here," Salaam—who ran on a progressive platform—told supporters during his victory speech.
"This campaign has been about those who have been counted out. This campaign has been about those who have been forgotten," Salaam continued. "This campaign has been about our Harlem community, who has been pushed into the margins of life and made to believe that they were supposed to be there."
"What has happened, in this campaign, has restored my faith in knowing that I was born for this," he added. "I am here because, Harlem, you believed in me."
Supporters hailed Salaam's unlikely rise to the halls of power, with fellow Central Park Five exoneree Raymond Santana tweeting, "From hated to most loved."
Sherrilyn Ifill, former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, called Salaam's apparent victory "a gift NYC doesn't deserve" that "can never balance what this city did to him."
Filmmaker Ken Burns, who along with his daughter Sarah Burns and her husband David McMahon made the 2012 documentary feature The Central Park Five, said he's "hopeful that young people everywhere will appreciate the poetry and justice in this victory."
Bernice King, CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, tweeted one of her father's best-known quotes, "The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."
Questioned about his lack of political experience earlier Tuesday outside a polling place, Salaam said that he believes being a political novice is "a great thing."
"I was 15 years old when I was run over by the spiked wheels of justice," Salaam told reporters. "And here I am now taking that same platform and turning it into a purpose, trying to take my pain and doing something about it."
In April 1989 Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Santana, and Salaam were arrested following the beating and rape of a woman jogging in Central Park. The five Black and Latino teens were beaten, deprived of food, drink, and sleep, and otherwise coerced by New York City Police Department officers into falsely confessing to the rape. They were tried, convicted, and spent years behind bars for a crime they did not commit.
Salaam, who was 15 years old when his life was turned upside down, was imprisoned for six years and eight months before his exoneration.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump, then just a New York businessman, spent $85,000—more than $200,000 today—on full-page ads in the city's four major newspapers calling for the restoration of capital punishment so that the Central Park Five could be executed.
Salaam reacted to Trump's March indictment on 34 felony counts in connection with alleged hush money payments to women who say the former president had sex with them by buying a full-page New York Times ad of his own.
"Now that you have been indicted and are facing criminal charges, I do not resort to hatred, bias, or racism—as you once did," Salaam's ad said. "Even though 34 years ago you effectively called for my death and the death of four other innocent children, I wish you no harm."
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Bernice King Urges Permanent School Strike Until Assault Weapons Ban Is Passed
"It should not have to take this kind of effort, but we're living in times where what my father did, which was to really sacrifice their very lives, sacrifice their job, sacrifice their home, sacrifice everything—we're right back at that place."
Apr 04, 2023
Rights advocate Bernice King, a daughter of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, expressed hope on the 55th anniversary of her father's assassination Tuesday that U.S. students leading gun control demonstrations will take inspiration from civil rights protesters who forced change through prolonged direct action.
King applauded more than 7,000 students in Nashville who marched to the Tennessee State Capitol on Monday, condemning Republican lawmakers who have claimed anti-LGBTQ+ laws will "protect" the state's children while refusing to take up gun control legislation after the mass shooting last month at the Covenant School, which killed three children and three adults.
"This issue that they're standing tall in is well past being addressed," King toldThe Hill on Tuesday.
The group Students Demand Action is also organizing a nationwide school walkout for Wednesday.
"The only thing that I wish, and I've said this before across the nation as I've talked to different audiences, I wish there was a way to really organize them in a way that their walkout is not a day, but it's the Montgomery bus protests, that we refuse to return to school until there is some significant legislation that bans assault weapons," King said.
"I wish there was a way to really organize them in a way that their walkout is not a day, but it's the Montgomery bus protests, that we refuse to return to school until there is some significant legislation that bans assault weapons."
King's father was one of the leaders of the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott that lasted from December 5, 1955 until December 20, 1956, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the city to integrate its buses.
Public pressure from groups including Students Demand Action and March for Our Lives has been credited with pushing legislators to pass the federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which included "enhanced" background checks for gun purchasers under age 21, funding for states to implement red flag laws, and provisions to stop interstate gun trafficking.
States have also passed dozens of gun control laws in recent years, but gun violence nonetheless surpassed car accidents last year as the leading cause of death for American children.
Researchers at New York University calculated last year that the risk of a person dying in a mass shooting was 70% lower when the 1994 federal assault weapons ban was in effect until 2004.
"My father was assassinated with a rifle that would be the equivalent of what we call assault weapons today, and 55 years later we're just increasing the access to these instruments," King told The Hill. "The issue is, these are deadly instruments, and we should not have them in society."
King's call for permanent school walkouts until lawmakers pass far-reaching gun control came as Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Illinois—the site of another mass shooting last year—went into lockdown due to reports that a student had a gun. The student body had participated in a walkout in solidarity with Nashville children earlier in the day.
After a mass shooting that killed 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas last May, Atlantic editor Gal Beckerman also urged a permanent school strike until the demands of the 63% of Americans who support an assault weapons ban are met.
"I'm left with one conclusion: The children and parents of our country need to take the summer to organize locally, build a set of national demands, and then refuse to go back to school in the fall until Congress does something," Beckerman wrote, explaining how the strike could force action:
One thing we've learned from the pandemic is that when children aren't in school, society strains. This would make a strike an extremely powerful form of leverage. A walkout with enough students involved and taking place over days, not minutes, puts concrete pressure on officials, from the municipal level all the way up to Washington. When students aren't in school, parents have difficulty getting to work. Suddenly understaffed services—hospitals, subways—suffer the consequences. Politicians and local officials have a mess on their hands—children falling behind in learning, parents overloaded—and a strong incentive to accede to a demand.
Republican policymakers this week have shown little tolerance for direct action by rights advocates. The Tennessee GOP filed resolutions to expel three Democrats who joined young protesters on Monday, and two Florida Democratic leaders were arrested for protesting a proposed six-week abortion ban.
"It should not have to take this kind of effort, but we're living in times where what my father did, which was to really sacrifice their very lives, sacrifice their job, sacrifice their home, sacrifice everything," said King. "We're right back at that place."
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