Peace advocate Bernice A. King to speak at ASU in October
Bernice A. King is the CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center), which advances her parents’ legacy of nonviolent social change through advocacy, research, education and training. Courtesy photo
Bernice A. King is committed to creating a more peaceful, just and humane world through nonviolent social change.
“We cannot afford as normal the presence of injustice, inhumanity and violence, including their verbal and cyber manifestations,” she has said.
King, a pastor, inactive lawyer and the youngest daughter of prominent civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, will share her philosophy for change in the 2024 Flinn Foundation Centennial Lecture presented by Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University.
Community expo and Centennial Lecture with Bernice King: "Building History: Continuing the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."
When: Tuesday, Oct. 1
Community expo, 5–6 p.m.
Lecture, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado Parkway
Admission: The community expo is free to the public in the Tempe Center for the Arts lobby. Tickets, which are required to enter the lecture, are free, but a service fee may apply. Tickets are available here.
This year’s Centennial Lecture is titled “Building History: Continuing the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” It will feature Bernice King in a moderated conversation and honor the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to Arizona, where he championed the enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
The event will be held on Oct. 1 at the Tempe Center for the Arts.
In conjunction with the Centennial Lecture, there will be a community expo open to the public with complimentary food, live music and speakers from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Tempe Center for the Arts lobby. The expo is sponsored by ASU, the City of Tempe, Amazon, Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, Arizona Community Foundation AND the Black Philanthropy Initiative.
Bernice King, who was 5 years old when her father was assassinated in 1968, is the CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center), founded by her mother as the official living memorial to MLK's life, work and legacy. In this position, she advances her parents’ legacy of nonviolent social change through advocacy, research, education and training about the Kings' philosophy of nonviolence, which she rebranded Nonviolence365 (NV365).
Through the King Center, she educates youth and adults around the world about the nonviolent principles and strategies modeled by her parents. Under her leadership, the center has implemented numerous initiatives reaching over 500,000 people worldwide, including the Beloved Community Leadership Academy, Students with King, NV365 Education & Training, and the Beloved Community Talks, conversations about difficult racial and social justice issues impacting our world.
She is the author of “Hard Questions, Heart Answers: Sermons and Speeches,” a collection of her sermons and speeches tackling such controversial subjects as disaffected youth, gun control and the death penalty.
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