Bernice King

Who is Bernice King?

Bernice Albertine King is an American minister best known as the youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr and Coretta Scott King. King was only five years old when her father died and at the age of 17 was invited to speak at the United Nations. She delivered her first sermon nearly twenty years after her father died as a young adult, and was arrested multiple times during her young adulthood.

King has contracted controversy for her views on and actions towards LGBT rights, notably when King took part in a march against same-sex marriage in 2004. Since her sister's death in 2007, Bernice 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 since 2002 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 bible. At the time of the dispute, King asked the media to "refrain from grouping" her with her brothers.