Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., said in an interview on Monday that it is “wonderful” that President Donald Trump’s swearing-in occurred on her father’s holiday.
“It’s wonderful that this occurs on the King holiday, the inauguration, because it reminds us of King,” King said on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” on Saturday, adding that the inauguration “points us back to King.”
“It says, ‘When we move forward, we’ve got to do it in the spirit of King,'” she said.
King was only 5 years old when her father was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
In the interview, she told Americans to “stay focused on the goal” of nonviolence.
“We have to strategize. We’ve been missing the strategy. We’ve been missing the spirit of Dr. King,” King said. “The spirit of Dr. King is nonviolence. And nonviolence is not just a posture, it’s a mindset. For us, we define it as a love-centered way of thinking, speaking, acting and engaging that leads to personal, cultural and societal transformation.”
In November, shortly after the 2024 election, King said that she felt “glad” that President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fell on her father’s holiday, as Townhall covered.
“I’m glad that if it was going to happen, it happened on the King holiday, because Dr King is still speaking to us,” she told the outlet.
The Independent added that King “sees the January 20 event as a wake-up call for the country and an opportunity to stand up to the incoming administration’s charged agenda items.”
“We cannot retreat or recoil,” King added. “We have to commit ourselves to continuing the mission of protecting freedom, justice and democracy in the spirit of my father.”