Bernice King on MLK Day coinciding with Trump inauguration: ‘It reminds us of King’s spirit’

The coincidence that Martin Luther King Jr. Day lands on the identical  Monday as Donald Trump’s inauguration isn’t a trigger for concern, based on Bernice King, the late civil rights icon’s daughter.

In an interview with MSNBC’s “The Weekend” on Saturday, she mentioned the timing gives a possibility to replicate on her father’s legacy because the U.S. transitions to a brand new administration.

“It’s fantastic that this happens on the King vacation, the inauguration, as a result of it reminds us of King,” mentioned Bernice King, the youngest of Martin Luther King’s 4 youngsters and who was 5 years outdated when her father was assassinated in 1968. “It factors us again to King. It says, ‘Once we transfer ahead, we’ve received to do it within the spirit of King.’”

An overlap between the federal vacation — established in 1983 and first noticed in 1986 — and Inauguration Day has occurred solely two different occasions. The primary was throughout President Invoice Clinton’s swearing-in in 1997, and the second was throughout Barack Obama’s in 2013. Obama additionally took his oath of workplace utilizing a Bible that had belonged to King himself.

Bernice King, who has been vital of Trump prior to now for his divisive rhetoric, addressed those that really feel “defeated” amid the looming inauguration, calling on Individuals to “keep targeted on the purpose” of nonviolence, a price championed by her father.

“We now have to strategize. We’ve been lacking the technique. We’ve been lacking the spirit of Dr. King,” Bernice King mentioned. “The spirit of Dr. King is nonviolence. And nonviolence is not only a posture, it’s a mindset. For us, we outline it as a love-centered mind-set, talking, performing and fascinating that results in private, cultural and societal transformation.”

Martin Luther King III, King’s eldest son, additionally addressed the timing, urging Trump to “be in dialogue with everyone,” not simply his supporters.

“In case you mentioned you needed to be a uniter, then those that didn’t help you, it’s good to attain out to them or enable them to achieve out to you,” the youthful King mentioned on “Meet the Press” Sunday. “We’re not reflective of the ‘United’ States of America proper this second, in my judgment.”

The King household has lengthy been outspoken in its criticism of Trump. In August, Trump in contrast the group at his “Cease the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021 — earlier than his supporters stormed the Capitol — to the 1963 March on Washington, the place King delivered his legendary “I Have A Dream” speech from the Lincoln Memorial.

“In case you take a look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his nice speech, and also you take a look at ours, identical actual property, identical every little thing, identical variety of individuals,” he mentioned throughout a information convention at Mar-a-Lago.

Though Trump acknowledged official estimates recorded a smaller crowd measurement at his rally in comparison with the March on Washington, he mentioned, “You take a look at it, and also you take a look at the image of my crowd … we truly had extra individuals.”

Bernice King bluntly rebutted the remark, calling it “completely not true.”

“I actually want that folks would cease utilizing my father to help fallacy,” she wrote on X on the time.

Trump’s crowd was round 53,000 individuals, based on the congressional Jan. 6 committee. That’s about one-fifth of the 250,000 who had been estimated to be at King’s 1963 deal with.

Throughout Martin Luther King Day celebrations in 2018, the civil rights chief’s youngsters condemned then-President Trump, significantly the disparaging feedback he made about African international locations throughout a gathering with senators on immigration.

“When a president insists that our nation wants extra residents from white states like Norway, I don’t even suppose we have to spend any time even speaking about what it says and what it’s,” Martin Luther King III mentioned on the time. “We received to discover a strategy to work on this man’s coronary heart.”