Quotes from Bernice King

The more you resist something, the more aggressive it becomes.

It is painful beyond measure to lose a loving father and grandmother to violence.

My mother was the strong wife, partner, and co-worker Martin Luther King, Jr. needed to be an effective leader, and he said so on many occasions.

Occasionally, in the afternoons, I catch a movie, watch football, go to Sunday brunch, or visit with family and friends.

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.

As you know, my father was for the inclusiveness and the betterment of society and the world. Certainly we recognize that there are diverse voices in our country, and people have the right of free speech. They have the right of choice, but again, it is our hope that when they choose, they choose to reflect those ideals that he taught us.

Something big is going on. I'm talking about a society that refuses to allow injustice just to persist without making our voices heard and without organizing to bring about effective change through our voting system.

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.

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.

With The King Center as her base, my mother pressed on to fulfill a role that changed lives and legislation. She was a woman who refused to surrender the reigns of what she knew to be her assignment, even when male civil rights and business leaders tried to convince her that she should leave the work of building her husband's legacy to them.

In 1985, I was arrested, along with my mother and brother, Martin III, in a protest against apartheid at the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C.

We cannot afford to regard as normal the presence of injustice, inhumanity, and violence, including their verbal and cyber manifestations.

Love is not a weak, spineless emotion; it is a powerful moral force on the side of justice.

All of us have to be committed to a life beyond our own aspirations.

It is time for humanity to reset our spiritual compass from self-centeredness to other-centeredness.

King-ian nonviolence is a way of thinking and living and is not confined to the work of social and systemic change.

Something is very wrong when our federal and state governments have a high tolerance for the unrestricted distribution of weapons of mass destruction, and it would be wrong to let this deadly form of neglect continue to facilitate bloodshed across America.

When I think about some of the policies that we make in this country, the policies are so self-driven.

Before she was a King, my mother was a peace advocate, a courageous leader, and an accomplished artist.

If people want to criticize me, that's their issue.

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.

When my father died, the money he left us would have dried up within a year were it not for my mother... We might very well have ended up on welfare.

My favorite preacher is not with me anymore, and that's my father.

I think the most pressing issue in our community is probably a generational divide.