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Bernice King says to "stay woke," fight for change during talk at ODU Martin Luther King, Jr. event Tuesday

Bernice King, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s daughter, gives a keynote address Jan. 28, 2025 at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
Cianna Morales
/
WHRO News
Bernice King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s youngest daughter, addresses a crowd Jan. 28, 2025 at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

King’s youngest daughter spoke about the power of forgiveness, nonviolent activism and generational struggles for social justice.

A doctor, minister and nonviolent activist named King spoke at Old Dominion University Tuesday evening.

Bernice King, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s daughter, addressed a crowd at the university’s 40th annual observance of the federal holiday.

King was due to give the address last year but delayed her appearance because of the death of her brother Dexter Scott King in January.

She touched on her father’s legacy and the importance of taking a stand against injustice. She also encouraged the audience to “stay woke” in the face of present threats to racial justice and democracy.

“My father led with the spirit of love,” she said. “He understood that love and power, conjoined harmoniously, are essential to creating lasting social change, that love should guide the use of power towards justice and a better society.”

King quoted her father, saying power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a pillar at the forefront of the modern Civil Rights Movement, using nonviolence to protest racism and to win rights and legal victories for African Americans.

He was assassinated in 1968. Bernice King, the youngest of his four children, was 5.

King followed in her father’s footsteps, preaching at Ebenezer Baptist Church and holding the presidency of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

In the 80s, she followed his example of civil disobedience and was arrested alongside her mother, Coretta Scott King, and brother Martin Luther King III for demonstrating against South African Apartheid.

Today, she is the CEO of the King Center and promotes education about nonviolence.

There is work to be done to achieve racial and social justice in America, she said Tuesday. To “be woke” is to be aware of oppression and to work against it. Health care, equitable education, housing affordability, civil rights, freedom, justice and democracy are all “on the line,” she said.

“My father —”

She interrupted herself.

“Notice I’m talking about him a lot tonight? He said so much wonderful stuff. You can’t help but say it.”

“He once said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ But that arc does not bend on its own. It bends when righteous people choose not to be silent in the face of injustice.”

Cianna Morales covers Virginia Beach and general assignments. Previously, she worked as a journalist at The Virginian-Pilot and the Columbia Missourian. She holds a MA in journalism from the University of Missouri.

Reach Cianna at cianna.morales@whro.org.

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