Nonviolence as a lifestyle and perpetual strategy will allow us to be on the offense instead of continually on the defense. We will be able to move the ball down the field with team decisions and playmaking versus constantly thinking about how the opposing forces are moving the ball.
— Bernice King
Among her many accomplishments, my mother is often identified as the leader of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday movement.
My mother made countless sacrifices so that her children - and all children - could grow up in a better nation and world.
Before my mother was a King, she was a gifted vocalist and musician, whose skill and academia garnered her a scholarship to the prestigious New England Conservatory for Music in Boston.
The time has long since come for truth, transparency, and talks in every sector of society, including media, advertisement and entertainment. We can challenge each other, gain understanding, and create a more just, humane, and peaceful world.
Every time I go to these racial forums, it is people who are alike, or it is progressives and liberals. So I said, 'At some point, we've got to bring the progressives and the liberals and the conservatives together.'
My dad was one who - he was nonpartisan, first of all. He learned to work with whatever administration was in office.
How do we expect change to occur if we are not willing to put on the whole armor of God and fight injustice wherever it raises its ugly head?
At Grinnell College, for the first time in my life, I was in an all-white setting. It was a shocking experience.
Some people feel like I'm arrogant. It's unfortunate, because people don't know my heart.
All of us have to be committed to a life beyond our own aspirations.
Always realize that even your strongest advocate and opponent is a part of the human family; albeit they may have small shortcomings and even strength in them, they are part of that human family.
We cannot afford to regard as normal the presence of injustice, inhumanity, and violence, including their verbal and cyber manifestations.
Somehow, we have to realize that what we watch and what we listen to not only often reflects our most violent tendencies but cultivates more violence.
In 1985, I joined my mother in a protest against apartheid in which we were arrested at the South African embassy in Washington, D.C. And she was at President-elect Mandela's side in Johannesburg when he claimed victory in South Africa's first free elections.
Before she was a King, my mother was a peace advocate, a courageous leader, and an accomplished artist.
Before my mother was a King, she climbed trees and wrestled with boys. And won. Even as a child, Coretta Scott demonstrated that her gender would not deter her success, nor did it detract from her strength.
How do we navigate and process painful biases and conflicting emotions and press on to be sacrificial and suffer in the struggle? And what do we do with images and depictions that, known or unknown to those perpetuating them, may contribute to the impediment of human progress?
What I'm trying to do is fulfill what my father said, which is, 'We have to find a way to live together as brothers and sisters, or together we're going to perish as fools.'
In the end, I still have the same hope as my father - that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the last word.
I didn't have a father to deal with about boyfriends. I didn't have a father to show me how a man and woman relate in a family setting. Therefore, I have given over my life to mentoring young people. I'm adamant about young people who have been denied a father/daughter relationship.
My favorite preacher is not with me anymore, and that's my father.
Do we want to be successful, or do we just want to make noise just to make it? Or just to put something on the record? I'll be honest with you, I'm tired of putting stuff on the record. I'm ready to see some real transformation and change.
Daddy taught us through his philosophy of nonviolence, which placed love at the centerpiece, that through that love we can turn enemies into friends. Through that love, we can create more dignified atmospheres.
My father provided some very important guidance in how we deal with conflict and polarization.
Love is not a weak, spineless emotion; it is a powerful moral force on the side of justice.
Environmental injustice is a tangible, intolerable example of an exhibited moral laxity and minimal concern for healthy standards by corporations and political structures based on the race, ethnicity, and class of those being impacted.
My mother was the strong wife, partner, and co-worker Martin Luther King, Jr. needed to be an effective leader, and he said so on many occasions.
With The King Center as her base, my mother pressed on to fulfill a role that changed lives and legislation. She was a woman who refused to surrender the reigns of what she knew to be her assignment, even when male civil rights and business leaders tried to convince her that she should leave the work of building her husband's legacy to them.
We are faced with the dilemma of how or if we demonstrate where we stand on critical issues and corresponding social ills. We are also bombarded with so many instances of inhumanity that it can be difficult to determine what part we play in human progress.
My father really set the tone for us to be a more moral nation, to take a moral high ground in everything that we do.
Unlike some people, my father would try to meet with President-elect Trump because he recognizes that in order to move the agenda of justice, freedom, and equality forward, you can't just protest and resist. You also have to negotiate as well.
Something big is going on. I'm talking about a society that refuses to allow injustice just to persist without making our voices heard and without organizing to bring about effective change through our voting system.
When my father died, the money he left us would have dried up within a year were it not for my mother... We might very well have ended up on welfare.
I wouldn't say I'm against same-sex marriage. I believe in freedom and equality for all people. I believe that when it comes to gay marriage, that's a political and legal issue that has to be dealt with in that arena. I have privately held beliefs, but when it comes to that, it's properly placed in the political and legal arena.
Thank God for the efforts of Black Lives Matter - we've seen an awakening in this era in a way we didn't see in Daddy's era in terms of people coming to grips with white privilege.
We are carrying collectively a lot of trauma, especially those of us in the African-American community. And if we're not careful, it'll overtake us, and we'll self-destruct.
Each of us must decide whether it is more important to be proved right or to provoke righteousness.
King-ian nonviolence is a way of thinking and living and is not confined to the work of social and systemic change.
