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Bernice King

Bernice Albertine King (born March 28, 1963) is an American minister best known as the youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. She was only five years old when her father was killed. In her adolescence, King chose to work towards becoming a minister after having a breakdown from watching a documentary about her father. King was 17 when she was invited to speak at the United Nations. Twenty years after her father died, she preached her trial sermon. Inspired by her parents' activism, she was arrested multiple times during her early adulthood.King participated in a march against same sex-marriage in 2004. Her mother suffered a stroke the following year and after she died in January 2006, King delivered the eulogy at her funeral. A turning point in King's life, King experienced conflict within her family when her sister Yolanda King and brother Scott King'>Dexter Scott King supported the sale of the King Center. After her sister died in 2007, she delivered the eulogy for her as well. She supported the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama and called his nomination part of her father's dream.King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 2009. Her father and elder brother Martin Luther King III had previously held the position. She was the first woman elected to the presidency in the organization's history, amidst the SCLC holding two separate conventions. King became upset with the actions of the SCLC, amid feeling that the organization was ignoring her suggestions and declined the presidency in January 2010.She has become involved in legal disputes with her brothers. King resigned as an elder at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in May 2011. She had been with the church for nine years and had planned to start her own ministry when she became CEO of the King Center only months afterward. In 2014, King has opposed her brothers in selling their father's Nobel Peace Prize and personal bible. At the time of the dispute, King asked the media to "refrain from grouping" her with her brothers.