You will encounter misguided people from time to time. That's part of life. The challenge is to educate them when you can, but always to keep your dignity and self-respect and persevere in your personal growth and development.
Bernice King
Nelson Mandela, a better man, not a bitter man, made our world a better place in which to live. His life and leadership exemplify the highest courage, dignity, and dedication to human liberation.
If each of us works toward making a sincere effort when we wake up each morning with a renewed commitment and dedication to embracing nonviolence as a lifestyle, this world will become a better place, bringing us ever closer to the Beloved Community of which my father so often spoke.
Nonviolence will empower and equip us to bring generations to the table and fuse our knowledge, gifts, and zeal together.
Each of us must decide whether it is more important to be proved right or to provoke righteousness.
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.
Consider all of the possibilities for positive global progress if we utilized nonviolence as the central value of our culture, encompassing our law enforcement and labor practices, which currently include people in numerous nations working for inhumane wages in unhealthy conditions.
Continue to speak out against all forms of injustice to yourselves and others, and you will set a mighty example for your children and for future generations.
With continued prayer and an equally-determined commitment to action for needed anti-violence reforms, let us resolve to work toward a new era in which every American child and every adult are protected from the ravages of brutality, safe and secure in our homes and schools and communities.
Refuse to be disheartened, discouraged, distracted from your goals in life.
It is incumbent on the media industry to discourage the glorification of media violence. It is also incumbent on consumers who love America to support this effort with selective patronage campaigns to encourage media that provides uplifting content and to boycott the worst offenders, if necessary.
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?
Love is not a weak, spineless emotion; it is a powerful moral force on the side of justice.
My first introduction to South Africa's struggle for freedom came when I was just 17. I had volunteered to speak in my mother's stead at a United Nations forum on South Africa because she was unable to attend on that occasion.
In the end, I still have the same hope as my father - that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the last word.
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.
At Grinnell College, for the first time in my life, I was in an all-white setting. It was a shocking experience.
When I think about some of the policies that we make in this country, the policies are so self-driven.
Seek out your brothers and sisters of other cultures and join together in building alliances to put an end to all forms of racial discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice. There are people of good will of all races, religions, and nations who will join you in common quest for the betterment of society.
Occasionally, in the afternoons, I catch a movie, watch football, go to Sunday brunch, or visit with family and friends.
I spend a lot of time meditating, which is something that I don't think most people know about me.
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.
I think the most pressing issue in our community is probably a generational divide.
I know that the absence of my father in my life had its cost.
In addition to needed gun control reforms, America urgently needs a stronger protest movement dedicated to reducing the glorification of violence in our culture - in music, film, television, video games, and even the Internet.
My father literally fought his entire life to ensure the inclusion of all people because he understood that we were intertwined and connected together in humanity.
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.
If I had to do it all over again, would I want my dad here? I would say no. Our world is in a better place because our father gave his life.
Some of the aspects of my speaking style are inherited and come naturally to me. I didn't take classes, and I didn't do anything to hone my skills.
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.
We must rediscover our faith in the future and join with one another to ensure that nonviolence is the prevalent choice for government, law enforcement, the non-profit sector, business, education, media, entertainment, arts, and for the global citizenry.
Trump's election could be a blessing in disguise. This is the opportunity for America to correct itself.
All of us have to be committed to a life beyond our own aspirations.
When I speak, I want to ensure that there is at least one person in the audience who leaves the room transformed.
Among her many accomplishments, my mother is often identified as the leader of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday movement.
I don't know if you realize this, but anger is anger. It has no mind. It has no rationality. It's mad, and it just wants to destroy.
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.
It is time for humanity to reset our spiritual compass from self-centeredness to other-centeredness.
My mother and Ethel Kennedy became good friends and worked together on a number of causes they had shared with their husbands. They together co-chaired 'A Time to Remember' to mobilize a movement for gun control.
We cannot afford to regard as normal the presence of injustice, inhumanity, and violence, including their verbal and cyber manifestations.
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.
After acknowledging that most law enforcement personnel are fair-minded and do a difficult job, it only takes one exception to create a terrible tragedy.
People have labeled me homophobic. If I was homophobic, I wouldn't have friends who are gay and lesbian, so that can't be true.
King-ian nonviolence is a way of thinking and living and is not confined to the work of social and systemic change.
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.
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.
Often, I am asked, 'What was your father like?' or, 'What would he think?' These are very difficult questions to answer, as I was so very young when I lost my father.
One person cannot be blamed for years of problems as it relates to race in America. This is something that has been with us since the founding of this nation. I mean, we were founded with slaves.
I am urging Americans to be more careful about the kinds of media we support with our consumer spending. We've got to invest less in the media that glorifies violence and more in entertainment that lifts up the values of love, compassion, and the best in human nature.
Choosing nonviolence does not mean that one will never get angry or become upset with others, including the ones we love.
